Cancer Society of New Zealand

Screening and Early Detection

Screening and Early Detection

 

All cancers, regardless of where they are in the body, start small. They then grow uncontrollably, either slowly or quickly, until they spread to other tissues. The cancer cells can travel around the body using the blood or lymph systems. For most treatments to be effective they are best started before the cancer has started to spread. To do this the cancers need to be ‘spotted’ early.

The aim of both screening and early detection programmes is to prevent cancer or detect cancer early and, hopefully, reduce the number of people who die from cancer each year.

Screening

Screening is where a test is given to healthy people. These are people who do not have any symptoms of cancer. The test helps to decide if they are at high or low risk for developing the cancer. Screening does not diagnose the cancer. Further tests will be needed to decide if the person does or does not have cancer.

For more information see:

What is screening? 

 

Early detection

The early detection of cancer means finding cancer before there are symptoms or as soon as possible after they develop. Its aim is to find the cancer before it has time to spread to other parts of the body.

For more information see:

What is early detection?

Last Updated: Tuesday 16 October, 2012