Cancer Screening 2016

The primary goal of cancer screening is to reduce cancer-related mortality without incurring significant harm. Screening efforts for solid tumors, therefore, have targeted the precursors of the most common and the most deadly cancers-breast, cervical, colorectal, lung and prostate cancer. Balancing risk and benefit has led to controversy regarding the timing of cancer screening-when to begin, how often to screen and when to stop-and the nature of the modality of cancer screening-invasive or noninvasive, laboratory-centered or imaging-centered. Evidence-based guidelines published by general medical societies, subspecialty societies and publicly funded task forces on population-based screening aid healthcare providers in making individualized decisions with their patients.