10 Facts About Cancer screening

Selective screening identifies people who are known to be at higher risk of developing cancer, such as people with a family history of cancer.

In general, cancer screening has risks and should not be done except with a medical indication.

Different kinds of cancer screening procedures have different risks, but good tests share some characteristics.

Cancer screening is not indicated unless life expectancy is greater than five years and the benefit is uncertain over the age of 70.

Breast cancer screening is the medical screening of asymptomatic, apparently healthy women for breast cancer in an attempt to achieve an earlier diagnosis.

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Cervical screening by the Pap test or other methods is highly effective at detecting and preventing cervical cancer, although there is a serious risk of overtreatment in young women up to the age of 20 or beyond, who are prone to have many abnormal cells which clear up naturally.

However, by 2022 the advent of new technologies, especially improved screening using blood tests, led the European Commission's Scientific Advice Mechanism to recommend organised population-level organised prostate cancer screening, concluding that the balance of harms and benefits had shifted.

The American Academy of Family Physicians comes to similar conclusions while the American Cancer screening Society recommends that adults over 20 years who have periodic health examinations should have the oral cavity examined for cancer.

Oral cancer screening is recommended by some groups of dental hygienists.

Routine screening is not recommended for testicular cancer and ovarian cancer.