Sixty to sixty-five percent of cancer survivors suffered mobility

Question

Sixty to sixty-five percent of cancer survivors suffered mobility limitations due to the effects of chemotherapy on their musculature. Treatments for preventing mobility limitations through the use of anabolic steroids have improved, but the proportion of cancer survivors who suffer from mobility limitations has increased.

Which of the following, if true, best reconciles the apparent discrepancy described above?

A. When cancer patients successfully complete a chemotherapy treatment, their musculature is unprepared to deal with the stress of performing normal activities.
B. Radiation therapy, a method of chemotherapy, can sometimes damage cancer patients’ musculature, but radiation can now be performed with less damage.
C. Thanks to improved medical technology, cancer patients who previously would have died, now live; however, this technology leaves them with more damaged musculatures than previous technology did, making the cancer survivors more likely to experience mobility issues.
D. The improvement of treatments aimed at preventing mobility loss due to chemotherapy has been gradual, and further investigation is still needed. 
E. The mobility limitations caused by chemotherapy can be reduced by carefully controlling the application of chemotherapy drugs and providing physical therapy, but these methods cannot completely prevent the issue.

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Adit_ · Answer

Only option C conveys the "discrepancy" here:

IF despite improvement there are reasons to believe that the new tech now has led to more damaged musculature it also addresses the fact that there could be an improvement in the overall treatment using the steroids but the mobility limitations continue to grow and no.of patiences surviving increase.

Answer:  Option C

Navdeep2000 · Answer

From the para, it states that Cancer survivors go through chemotherapy, which then leads to mobility limitations. Also, through the use of some steroids, the treatment to prevent the same has improved. However, mobility limitations has increased somehow.  
 We have to look for an option that explains this discrepancy.

A. When cancer patients successfully complete a chemotherapy treatment, their musculature is unprepared to deal with the stress of performing normal activities. 
 It could be the reason for mobility limitations. However, it doesn't explain the  increase  in mobility limitations, especially when the steroid is there to help with it. We have no reason to believe that musculature inability to deal with the stress was not always present in the cancer survivors. Hence, Rejected.

B. Radiation therapy, a method of chemotherapy, can sometimes damage cancer patients’ musculature, but radiation can now be performed with less damage. 
 Between the sentence, it could seem that it helps to solve the discrepancy. However, towards the end of it, this option states that radiation can now be performed with less damage. If anything, it adds to the discrepancy and not solve it. Rejected.

C. Thanks to improved medical technology, cancer patients who previously would have died, now live; however, this technology leaves them with more damaged musculatures than previous technology did, making the cancer survivors more likely to experience mobility issues. 
 Exactly. It explains something which was not always prevalent from the very beginning. If there's a new technology to help more patients to survive, but also damage musculature at a greater scale than previous technology, it helps us understand why the there's an increase in mobility limitations among the cancer survivors.  Option C

D. The improvement of treatments aimed at preventing mobility loss due to chemotherapy has been gradual, and further investigation is still needed.  
 Again, there's no reason to believe this issue was not there from the very beginning and therefore doesn't explain the increase in the mobility limitation cases. Rejected.

E. The mobility limitations caused by chemotherapy can be reduced by carefully controlling the application of chemotherapy drugs and providing physical therapy, but these methods cannot completely prevent the issue. 
 It sounds all good. However, like D, it doesn't explain the increase in the cases. Rejected.

Dereno · Answer

Post chemotherapy, (60-65)% of the cancer survivors suffer from mobility limitations. To cope up with this problem, anabolic steroids are being administered to mitigate mobility limitations.

Despite this, there has been an increasing proportion of cancer survivors reporting mobility limitations.

We need to resolve the paradox.

A. When cancer patients successfully complete a chemotherapy treatment, their musculature is unprepared to deal with the stress of performing normal activities.

This option lays down the reason behind the mobility limitations issue. But , doesn’t explain the spike which is happening recently. Hence, wrong.

B. Radiation therapy, a method of chemotherapy, can sometimes damage cancer patients’ musculature, but radiation can now be performed with less damage.

The passage speaks about the chemotherapy in general and doesn’t hit on the subsets within the chemotherapy. So, this option switches gears from generalised to specificity. Which is wrong.

C. Thanks to improved medical technology, cancer patients who previously would have died, now live; however, this technology leaves them with more damaged musculatures than previous technology did, making the cancer survivors more likely to experience mobility issues .

The option mentions about a new medical technology that is being put to use. This has saved more lives than earlier. So the survival population has increased. Does the base population increase eventually led to proportion increase ? So, as a tradeoff, more survivors are coming, and they report their mobility limitations they have experienced because of the new technology.

This addresses the paradox. Hence, Correct answer.

D. The improvement of treatments aimed at preventing mobility loss due to chemotherapy has been gradual, and further investigation is still needed.

This option speaks about the futuristic path that needs to be taken to minimise the mobility limitations cases. Moreover, this option doesn’t address the cause for the spike despite the anabolic steroids being administered. Hence, Wrong.

E. The mobility limitations caused by chemotherapy can be reduced by carefully controlling the application of chemotherapy drugs and providing physical therapy, but these methods cannot completely prevent the issue.

This option speaks about how the mobility limitations can be reduced under controlled environments, where drugs and therapies are used in combination to resolve the problem. But, does this option address the cause for hike in more cases. No. Thus, Wrong.

Option C

egmat · Answer

This is a  Resolve the Discrepancy  question. We need to find an answer that allows  BOTH  facts to be true:

Fact 1:  Treatments for preventing mobility limitations have  IMPROVED 
 Fact 2:  The proportion of survivors with mobility limitations has  INCREASED

At first glance, these seem contradictory. Better treatments should mean fewer issues, right? Not necessarily!

The  trap  is assuming the survivor population stayed the same. It didn't.

Think of it this way:

Before:   100  cancer patients →  60  survive →  40  have mobility issues ( 67% )
 Now:   100  cancer patients →  90  survive →  70  have mobility issues ( 78% )

Why Answer C Works:

Answer C introduces a critical new factor:  improved medical technology now saves patients who previously would have  died . However, this life-saving technology leaves them with  more damaged musculature  than older treatments did.

So even though mobility treatments improved, the survivor pool now includes many severely damaged patients who weren't there before. The improved treatments simply can't keep up with this influx of new, more severely affected survivors.

Why Other Answers Fail:

(A)  Explains why mobility issues occur, but not why the  proportion increased 
 (B)  Actually  deepens the paradox  - less radiation damage should mean fewer issues
 (D)  "Gradual improvement" doesn't explain an  increase  in problems
 (E)  "Cannot completely prevent" doesn't explain why it got  worse

Answer: C

Takeaway:  In paradox questions, look for answers that introduce a  hidden factor  or  changing composition  that allows both seemingly contradictory facts to coexist.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Video explanation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA_67dfMihg

Sixty to sixty-five percent of cancer survivors suffered mobility

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Sixty to sixty-five percent of cancer survivors suffered mobility

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