Regular screening can bend the odds in your favor when it comes to four types of cancers. The science is less clear for the rest.
Screening can be a powerful weapon against cancer, helping catch some tumors months, or even years, before a person would feel sick enough to see a doctor.
There are many different types of cancer, but the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a group of independent medical experts, only recommends regular screening for four types: lung, breast, colorectal and cervical. For this quartet, the task force has found that regular screening can save lives without exposing too many people to false alarms, additional testing or unnecessary treatments.
“Screening is on the front lines of reducing deaths from cancer,” said Robert Smith, an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society.
Why should you be screened for these cancers?
Every so often, the task force systematically reviews the evidence behind cancer screening and issues recommendations by age and potential risk factors, said Dr. John Wong, vice-chair of the task force. These recommendations are for healthy people, so if you have symptoms, your doctor may want to look for cancer regardless of age or when you were last screened.
All four screenings are recommended because they reduce cancer deaths, with the task force’s modeling showing 13 percent fewer deaths from lung cancer and 28 to 30 percent fewer from breast cancer. Clinical trials have reported similar results.
Beyond finding cancer early, colorectal and cervical cancer screening can also help prevent disease, Dr. Smith said.