"My last visit to the facility was wonderful. I saw the practitioner and the staffy. All were excellent. The staff worked particularly hard on my requests since I live quite far away. They helped with directions and provided some help towards the transportation of getting to their office."
Equitas Health Gender Affirming Care and Prevention
Screening means checking your body for cancer before you have symptoms. Getting screening tests regularly may find breast, cervical, colorectal (colon), and lung cancers early, when treatment is likely to work best.
Although screening may lead to an earlier diagnosis, not all screening tests have been shown to benefit the person being screened; overdiagnosis, misdiagnosis, and creating a false sense of security are some potential adverse effects of screening.
A screening test is done to detect potential health disorders or diseases in people who do not have any symptoms of disease. The goal is early detection and lifestyle changes or surveillance, to reduce the risk of disease, or to detect it early enough to treat it most effectively.
Cancer screening means looking for cancer before symptoms appear, when cancer may be easier to treat. Screening tests can help reduce the risk of dying from some cancers, but all tests have potential risks, too. Learn more about cancer screening and available tests in this expert-reviewed summary.
Regular cancer screening tests can help find & treat cancers early, when it might be easier to treat. See our resources for recommended screening tests for ages 25 and up.
In the U.S., a panel of experts called the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force sets cancer screening guidelines. They study how effectively screening tests prevent diseases and their worst outcome — death — in a population.
Learn about the different types of colonoscopies and other tests that help screen for colorectal cancer so it can be caught early from the experts at MSK.