Im a doctor 3 buzzy medical breakthroughs that arent all theyre cracked up to be

Medicine is advancing at breakneck speed, with once-unthinkable treatments and technologies now becoming reality.These innovations have led to miraculous new treatments: Scientists can now target and fix rare inherited diseases with gene editing, use mRNA technology to create and update vaccines faster during crises, and personalize cancer treatments with targeted therapies based on a patient’s unique genetic code.That doesn’t mean every breakthrough is as revolutionary as it sounds.

Here are three that doctors say deserve a closer look.Colorectal cancer — which includes cancers of the colon and rectum — is the second-leading cause of cancer-related death in the US for both women and men combined, according to the Cancer Research Institute.Rates are skyrocketing among young adults by nearly 3% per year, making early detection increasingly important.While a colonoscopy is the gold standard for both preventing and detecting colon cancer, it requires prep — drinking strong laxatives to empty the bowels the day before — as well as sedation and an internal scope.So when the Shield Blood Test hit the market as the first FDA-approved blood test for primary colorectal cancer screening, it received huge national media attention and backing from major medical organizations including the American Cancer Society.But Dr.

Mason Pimsler, an internist at NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln and global medical correspondent for WABC RADIO 770, told The Post that the test has significant limitations.Specifically, while the test is generally successful at identifying colorectal cancer in stages 2-4, according to its own fact sheet, it has “limited detection” of Stage 1 colorectal cancer, catching just 55%-65% of it.It’s even less sensitive to precancerous legions, failing to detect 87% of them.Shield says that one out of 10 patients with a negative test may actually have “may have a precancer that would have been detectedby a screening colonoscopy.”“When you go fo...