Screening for cancer

Testing for pre-cancers
Diagnosing cancer

Description

Screening for cancer involves systematically testing individuals without symptoms to detect cancer at an early, more treatable stage. This strategy aims to reduce cancer-related mortality and morbidity by enabling timely intervention, improving treatment outcomes, and lowering healthcare costs. Essential actions include implementing population-based screening programmes, utilizing validated tests, ensuring follow-up of abnormal results, and targeting high-risk groups. Effective screening addresses late diagnosis, increases survival rates, and mitigates the burden of cancer on individuals and health systems.

Implementation

To avoid the risk of suffering from cancer, people must undergo certain tests regularly. Three are enough for people in good health, according to a 1999 European Union report. The two tests for women are a cervical smear - for women who are 30 years and older, but certainly not for those under 20 – and a mammography, designed to detect breast cancer in women between the ages of 50 and 69. Both men and women in the 50-69 age group need to be tested for rectal cancer. The test involves looking for traces of blood in stools. The usefulness of these three types of tests has been amply demonstrated, but the other tests in use are not conclusive in the case of healthy people, according to European cancer specialists.