Cara Santamaria

Because when we're talking about individuals over 75...

there are more medical complications, and there are fewer years just from a statistical perspective of living.

And so, you know, the study authors basically said, even if the procedure goes well, you're either going to find something...

or not but if you do find something it may not have a real impact on your longevity and would these individuals be moving forward and having other kind of invasive medical treatments that could have side effects that outweigh the the slow growth of the disease there as my dad put it when he first found out that he had early stage prostate cancer and you know did have his prostate removed

and without complication, luckily, his physician told him, most men will not die of prostate cancer, but most elderly men on autopsy will have some slow growth in their prostate.

And so these are the other two that they describe here are a treatment for a skin condition called actinic keratosis, which causes like red patches often on the face or scalp because it it reacts with the sun.

It results from long term sun exposure.

And most of the time people choose to remove them.

And there was a large study that showed that Medicare beneficiaries, so we're already talking over 65, over a five-year period, almost 30% of people were diagnosed with actinic keratosis.

So that study didn't say how many people had it removed, but it's almost a third of the population of Medicare recipients were diagnosed with this.

Many people do end up getting them removed via cryosurgery or laser therapy.

And the rationale there has been historically that these patches could become cancer.

But the rate on further review is less than a 1 in 1,000 chance.

Less than a 1 in 1,000 chance that these patches would progress to skin cancer.

Much more often they just disappear on their own.

And so the study author said, you know, the treatment can be more burdensome than the condition itself.

It's very painful.

It can cause swelling, irritation, and it can cause lasting discoloration.

And even beyond that, actinic keratosis will often reappear.

It's a chronic condition.