Early Detection = Pound of Cure?

I was in the Ford dealership waiting room in Iowa City and came upon Wired magazine from January. The cover story showed a new way of getting at cancer--what used to be called in the last century "a paradigm shift." Since cancers caught early can usually be treated, why not put more effort into detecting cancer when they're just starting out?

Makes sense. But in the meantime... in the meantime, we should be looking for a cure on the one hand, and ways to prevent the disease on the other hand. A Slate writer read the article and opined: But the piece (by Thomas Goetz) also manifested, I thought, a slightly breathless embrace of science that still seems to be iffy.

So the jury is out. People are getting diagnosed all the time. People have cancer growing in them and are unaware. The world keeps spinning and we crave for everything to make sense.