keciman rienxery

Prenuvo is a company that offers full-body MRI scans.
They recently finished their biggest study so far to check how good their scans are at finding cancer.

Some companies like Prenuvo say that having a full-body scan every year can help find cancers and other issues in the body before people start feeling sick.
But others are not sure if the benefits are worth the cost and the stress of more tests that people might have to go through.

Prenuvo May Detect Cancers Not Caught by Routine Screening

In a new study, 1,000 people paid for a Prenuvo scan.
The doctors looking at the scans found abnormalities in 41 people that could be cancer. They suggested that these people get a biopsy. Over the next year, about half of those biopsies turned out to be cancer.

The overall rate of detecting cancer was 2.2%.
Prenuvo shared these early results at a cancer research conference in April.

It's hard to compare Prenuvo's results directly with other cancer screening methods.
Right now, screening is recommended for five types of cancer, and the detection rates vary depending on the test and the stage of screening. A blood test being developed can detect 50 types of cancer with a detection rate of 0.5%, according to the latest clinical trial.

Yosef Chodakiewitz, MD, who is the medical director of primary care radiology at Prenuvo, told Verywell, "This is something that deserves more study as a cancer screening method.
We're not too far from the standards used to evaluate cancer screening methods."

Chodakiewitz pointed out that two-thirds of the cancers found by Prenuvo aren't covered by regular screening.
These include Hodgkin lymphoma, three cases of kidney cancer, and two cases of bladder cancer.

Finding a Cancer May Not Necessarily Improve Mortality

Michael Rosenthal, MD, PhD, a doctor and scientist in diagnostic radiology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said the data suggests Prenuvo is correctly identifying lesions, but it's not clear if the cancers they find are serious.

Many people get cancers that don't end up being harmful.
For some less aggressive cancers, doctors may decide to watch them closely instead of treating them right away.

Rosenthal said, "When we hear that we have cancer, it's a terrifying, life-changing moment.
The idea that there might be a lot of cancers that aren't important is a new concept for society, and we're just starting to understand that."

The Prenuvo report shows how many cancers were found, but not how bad they were.
Rosenthal hopes to see more details about the nature of those cancers. It's important to know that the scans are catching cancers that need immediate treatment.

For people who get an abnormal result on their Prenuvo scan, follow-up tests can have downsides.
Biopsies and additional imaging can be costly for both the patient and the healthcare system. There are also health risks from using anesthesia, bleeding from invasive procedures, and other complications.

Amir Borhani, MD, an associate professor of radiology and surgery at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said his team often gets referrals for prostate exams from men whose Prenuvo scans found abnormalities in the prostate.

He said, "There's always a chance of finding something important.
But in my mind, the odds haven't really changed. If I just randomly pick someone walking down Michigan Avenue and put them in an MRI, versus someone who came through Prenuvo, the chances of them having cancer are pretty much the same."