Cancer screening means looking for cancer before symptoms appear, when cancer may be easier to treat. Learn about different screening tests and the possible benefits and harms of using them.
Objective
Cancer screening tests aim to find cancer before it causes symptoms and when it may be easier to treat successfully. An effective screening test is one that
- finds cancer early
- reduces the chance that someone who is screened regularly will die from the cancer
- has more potential benefits than harms - possible harms of screening tests include bleeding or other physical damage, false-positive or false-negative test results, and overdiagnosis—the diagnosis of cancers that would not have caused problems and did not need treatment
Recommended cancer screening tests
Several cancer screening tests are considered effective and recommended by expert.
- Breast cancer screening
- Cervical cancer screening
- Colorectal cancer screening
- Lung cancer screening
Other screening tests
- Alpha-fetoprotein blood test
- Breast MRI
- Multicancer early detection tests
- Skin exams
- Virtual colonoscopy
- etc.