Cancer Research and Anticancer Therapies

Cancer Screening

Unlike diagnostic efforts prompted by symptoms and medical signs, cancer screening involves efforts to detect cancer after it has formed, but before any noticeable symptoms appear. This may involve physical examination, blood or urine tests or medical imaging.  

Cancer screening is not available for many types of cancers. Even when tests are available, they may not be recommended for everyone. Universal screening or mass screening involves screening everyone. Selective screening identifies people who are at higher risk, such as people with a family history. Several factors are considered to determine whether the benefits of screening outweigh the risks and the costs of screening. These factors include:

•     Possible harms from the screening test: for example, X-ray images involve exposure to potentially harmful ionizing radiation
•     The likelihood of the test correctly identifying cancer
•     The likelihood that cancer is present: Screening is not normally useful for rare cancers.