Cancer screening involves searching for signs of the dangerous disease before symptoms develop. The goal is to catch cancer as early as possible, making it easier to treat and thus saving lives.
A new study recently seemed to cast doubt on whether screening for cancer actually saves lives, but scientists told Live Science we shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
In the new research, published Aug. 28 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, scientists reviewed 18 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) involving 2.1 million people, which investigated six tests for four types of cancer: breast, lung, prostate and colorectal, also called colon cancer. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supports screening for all of these cancers except prostate cancer, in line with recommendations from an independent panel of experts called the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).
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