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Cancer screening aims to detect cancer before symptoms appear. This may involve blood tests, urine tests, DNA tests, other tests, or medical imaging. The benefits of screening in terms of cancer prevention, early detection and subsequent treatment must be weighed against any harms.
All people at average risk should start testing at age 45. There are several testing options. Talk with a health care provider about which tests are best for you and how often testing should be done.
Your doctor may use one or more approaches to diagnose cancer:
Checking for cancer (or for abnormal cells that may become cancer) in people who have no symptoms is called screening. Several screening tests have been shown to detect cancer early and to reduce the chance of dying from that cancer.
Warning Signs of Cancer
When cancer or any condition is present but there are no noticeable symptoms, it's said to be asymptomatic. Many cancers are asymptomatic in their early stages, which is why regular screenings are so important. Cancers that trigger obvious symptoms early on are called symptomatic cancers.
