Medicine is advancing at breakneck speed, with once-unthinkable treatments and technologies now becoming reality. <\/p>\n
These innovations have led to miraculous new treatments: Scientists can now target and fix rare inherited diseases with gene editing<\/a>, use mRNA technology<\/a> to create and update vaccines faster during crises, and personalize cancer treatments<\/a> with targeted therapies based on a patient\u2019s unique genetic code.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean every breakthrough is as revolutionary as it sounds. Here are three that doctors say deserve a closer look.<\/p>\n These medical innovations might not be as revolutionary as they seem. interstid \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n Blood tests for colon cancer screenings<\/p>\n Colorectal cancer \u2014 which includes cancers of the colon and rectum \u2014 is the second-leading cause of cancer-related death in the US for both women and men combined, according to the Cancer Research Institute. <\/p>\n Rates are skyrocketing among young adults by nearly 3% per year, making early detection increasingly important.<\/p>\n While a colonoscopy is the gold standard for both preventing and detecting colon cancer, it requires prep \u2014 drinking strong laxatives to empty the bowels the day before \u2014 as well as sedation and an internal scope.<\/p>\n So when the Shield Blood Test<\/a> hit the market as the first FDA-approved blood test for primary colorectal cancer screening, it received huge national media attention and backing from major medical organizations including the American Cancer Society.<\/p>\n But Dr. Mason Pimsler<\/a>, an internist at NYC Health + Hospitals\/Lincoln<\/a> and global medical correspondent for WABC RADIO 770, told The Post that the test has significant limitations.<\/p>\n Specifically, while the test is generally successful at identifying colorectal cancer in stages 2-4, according to its own fact sheet<\/a>, it has \u201climited detection\u201d of Stage 1 colorectal cancer, catching just 55%-65% of it.<\/p>\n The Shield Blood Test offers a less invasive alternative to a colonoscopy, but it has important limitations. Guardant<\/p>\n It\u2019s even less sensitive to precancerous legions, failing to detect 87% of them. Shield says that one out of 10 patients with a negative test may actually have \u201cmay have a precancer that would have been detected \u201cWhen you go for colon cancer screening, you want to know if there\u2019s precancerous growths to be removed so you don\u2019t get cancer,\u201d Pimsler said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you went for the colonoscopy or virtual colonoscopy, and they picked up a precancerous growth, then you could get it removed,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n \u201cBut if you went for the Shield \u2026 and it came up normal, that\u2019s not giving you much comfort because it could be a precancerous growth growing there, and a lot of people do have polyps,\u201d he added referring to neoplastic polyps, the type that can turn into cancer over time if left untreated. <\/p>\n Dr. Mason Pimsler weighs in on the limitations of several buzzy medical breakthroughs. Devon Similie from NYC Health + Hospitals\/Lincoln<\/p>\n At-home Alzheimer\u2019s blood tests<\/p>\n More than 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer\u2019s, and that number is projected to rise to nearly 13 million by 2050 as the populations ages. At age 45, the lifetime risk of developing Alzheimer\u2019s is about 1 in 5 for women and 1 in 10 for men.<\/p>\n At-home or direct-to-consumer Alzheimer\u2019s blood tests allow people to order biomarker kits online or provide a finger-prick sample to assess biomarkers associated with the disease without initially visiting a specialist.<\/p>\n
by a screening colonoscopy.\u201d<\/p>\n