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RE: Why there is no cure for cancer on the market, Part I – written in collaboration with oncologist
With your first entry in the timeline, you are of course assuming that the age of 1.7 million years is accurate. In any case, I routinely see doctors misdiagnose simple conditions in people that are still alive, and here you are telling me that doctors can diagnose cancer from 1.7 million years past, from an old chunk of bone. Where do these magicians live? I'd like to see them next time I feel ill.
1.7 plus or minus 0.1 million years meaning the uncertainty of the age is roughly 100,000 years (which is pretty accurate) and there are multiple way to determine the age and each of them, when used together, can produce a pretty accurate estimate. As for diagnosing issues, it is a lot easier to diagnose things when you are allowed to use destructive testing (generally considered a no-no on living patients) which is why we can tell if someone was misdiagnosed after an autopsy because they can do those destructive tests. So I do not think you truly want to go see them when you are feeling ill 😂
Thanks for your question. And here are the answers:
About the age and the results in general. It is a common practice to have the "last significant digit". For example, if I am 187 cm tall, it means 187 +- 1 cm or in other words 186 - 188. In case of practical use, this error is considered reasonable. If it's written 187.0 cm it usually means 187.0 +- 0.1 cm. In this case, the bones are dated to 1.6 - 1.800.000 years. How many years exactly - we don't know because those are the limits of our measurements.
If you go to the source article, you will find this sentence in the very first paragraph: The reported incidence of neoplastic disease in the extinct human lineage is rare. Only a few confirmed cases
of Middle or Later Pleistocene dates (780 000 to 120 000 years old) have been reported. [References 1 and 2].
In other words, this is rare to find but not unique
XTH225ST µXCT system, at an energy potential of 100 kV and resolution
of 17 microns. Reconstruction was performed by E.J.O. and P.R.Q. using
Avizo Amira 5.4 to generate both 2D orthoslice and 3D surface rendered
views
In other words XCT, common device used in diagnostics.