Ars on your lunch break: An early warning is key to kicking cancer

Enlarge / Scott wishing cancer upon Terrance and Phillip. Terrance and Phillip could have saved themselves a lot of heartache if they'd had a reliable fast-acting cancer test like the one being developed for the Cancer X Prize. (credit: Viacom)

Below you'll find the second and final installment of the After On interview with pediatric oncologist and medical futurist Daniel Kraft. Please check out part one if you missed it. Otherwise, press play on the embedded player, or pull up the transcript-both of which are below.

Today, we build on the amazing results Google attained with its experimental eye scan study and consider the unlikely things that might one day be meaningful early-warning markers for health problems. Maybe shifts in vocal tone? Tiny subtleties in sleep patterns? Social media activity? Or deep algorithms that correlate these and many other signals? Could breath become a biomarker for cancer? (Almost certainly.) Could toe size foretell wild success on the NASCAR circuit? (Don't count on it.)

Click here for a transcript and click here for an MP3 direct download.

We close by talking about the Cancer X Prize, which Kraft is overseeing. It's all about early detection. Their highly quotable target is a test, which can detect multiple cancers in under 24 hours for less than $24, anywhere from Tennessee to Tanzania.

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