This is not a study

There is exciting new research out about a new liquid breast cancer biopsy. Wow! Wonderful! Not so fast. The study looked at FOUR people so far. I know they have more patients lined up to include but I do think announcing advancement based on four people is a bit premature.

That's like saying 'I went to the beach and found four blue grains of sand immediately' so it was a blue sand beach. Um, that doesn't work.

In this case I clearly think more research is needed.

But what is very sad about this is that I hope it is not the wave of the future where initial results and greatly publicized. Even now it is difficult enough to figure out what medical research really is promising and which is not and is still years out from hitting the market. Media hype might get the researchers more money or help their CVs but it won't help the patients who are supposed to be the beneficiaries in the long run.

Let's please go back to focusing on the patients. We are supposed to be the focus of all the research anyway.