Cancer screening

fret_wimp2

I'm getting to the age where I want to do a health screening every 18-24 months, just to give a better chance of staying ahead of any more serious issues.

Lots of clinics do health screenings with blood tests etc, but it's not clear what exactly is bring screened for until you show up for a consultation and pay, which gets expensive quickly.

I did one in a clinic about 2 years ago but even after lots of questions it was difficult to know what exactly was checked for. The doc tried to really dumb it down and all my questioning didn't help clarify, and just resulted in him spouting out polite disclaimers incase he missed anything.


If I want to ensure screening for cancer is included in any tests, what tests should I look for /ask for?

Is there a "standard" battery of blood tests that's carried out for a general health check and what does it generally include?

challengemaster

"Cancer" is a bit ambiguous. There are over 100 types.

http://www.cancer.gov/types

At the moment, all blood tests will really pick up are blood type cancers such as leukemia or lymphoma, or if any cancer has spread into your bone marrow. Specialised tumor marker tests really only detect ovarian/prostate/liver/germ cell cancer. There is no standard blood test that covers everything.

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancers-in-general/tests/blood-tests

echo beach

Even if you are screened for 'cancer' most screens are not that useful. They throw up a lot of false positives, indicating that you have cancer when you don't which causes immense distress and may lead to unnecessary treatment, and false negatives, which gives unjustified reassurance that no cancer is present.
Finding cancer, even in the presence of symptoms, can be difficult. Looking for it in healthy individuals at low risk is a waste of resources and a source of stress waiting for results that will still be inconclusive.

fret_wimp2

Good information, thanks guys.
Im only interested as 3 people in my extended circle of friends, at roughly my age have been diagnosed with varying forms of cancer in the past 2-3 years, so it sounds like something i should be keeping an eye on every 12-24 months.

Seems though from the posts that there is no real useful screening, which means you just wait until you show obvious symptoms at which point you get checked out and its down to chance if you caught it in time or are gone too far. Scary stuff, thought diagnosis was better than this.

echo beach

fret_wimp2 wrote: »

Scary stuff, thought diagnosis was better than this.

Certain companies have a vested interest in frightening you and then implying that they can somehow reduce your risk if you pay them enough, when in fact they can't.

It isn't quite as scary as you might think. It is important to keep things in perspective. You mention 3 people in your extended circle, which might consist of several hundred people, possibly more. There will also be some people who survived cancers that would have killed them a generation ago.
Everybody has to die of something and for many of us that 'something' will be cancer. The longer you and your friends live and avoid dying of 'something else' then the more likely it is that you will die of cancer. As you get older more and more of your friends of the same age will get cancer. That doesn't mean there is 'more' cancer but you will be more and more aware of it.
It is wise to take sensible measures to reduce your risk - no smoking, moderate alcohol, moderate exercise and healthy diet - and to be aware of any possible signs but there is no point in worrying about the factors that you can't control, like genetics and pure bad luck.

Kurtosis

There's a helpful guide that's been produced by Sense About Science available here.

Or the following gives a brief illustration of the benefits and risks screening: