CANCER SCREENING AND EARLY DETECTION

CANCER SCREENING AND EARLY DETECTION

Cancer screening is an important part of overall healthcare. This is because the effective way to survive cancer is to detect the disease at an early stage and completely eliminate it from the body, before the cancerous cells spread to the rest of the body. 

There exist ways to identify the presence of cancer even before the disease starts manifesting itself in the form of symptoms. 

Types of Cancer Screenings

Cancer screenings test people for early stages of cancer development, even though they have no symptoms.

There are a few ways to screen for cancer:

• Physical exam — an exam to check for lumps or anything else that seems unusual.

• Lab tests — samples of blood, tissue, urine, or other substances in the body to test for cancer.

• Imaging tests — pictures of inside the body to look for tumors, growths, or anything else suspicious.

• Genetic screening tests — blood tests to look for inherited cancer genes and DNA changes.

Benefits of cancer screening: 

• Cancer screening helps detect the presence of cancer before it spreads throughout the body, making treatment easier and more effective.

• The earlier the detection of the presence of cancer, the better are an individual’s chances of survival.

• Early detection also means less treatment in terms of both, costs and use of chemicals and light therapy.

• Early detection of cancer also means detection of the problem before an individual has to suffer from the symptoms of the manifestation of the disease inside the body.