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Abstract
[...]proving the clinical importance of early detection is an extremely difficult task that depends not simply on the techniques used for detection but also on the therapeutic options available and the natural history of the disease. [...]since there is no scientific novelty in this case and the method used is unsuitable for general use, it seems to have been a peculiar journalistic decision to highlight this case merely because it involved a prominent public figure. Furthermore, the long natural history of many cancers actually provides ample opportunity for chemopreventive strategies that may ultimately lead to more conservative surgery and less aggressive adjuvant therapies. [...]in addition to definitively identifying cancer cells in specimens obtained in 1967, molecular genetic studies provided important prognostic information, since the presence of a p53 mutation suggests a genetically advanced and clinically aggressive tumor4.