Dr. Amit Sharma, Medical Oncologist, HCG Panda Cancer Centre, Cuttack.
Cancer can occur in any part of the body and the disease occurs at different stages and is most curable in its initial stages. This is the main reason why early cancer diagnosis is crucial.
A systematic approach called screening is undertaken prior to the appearance of symptoms to diagnose cancer, its kind, and its stage. People benefit from the screening because it makes it easier to treat or cure cancer from its roots when it is discovered early.
Cancer screening aims to detect cancer at an early stage, and the treatment is more effective during its early stages. To treat cancer, it is important to identify the disease’s origin or trigger.
Among the common triggers for cancers are habits like smoking or chewing tobacco, consuming alcohol, diet and a lack of physical activities, hormonal factors, viruses, exposure to ultraviolet rays of the sun, infections, hereditary factors, genetic mutations among others.
It is imperative for people to be aware of the changes occurring in their health conditions and the major changes they are having to adopt in their everyday life.
Some forms of cancer could show up as a lump or a thickening of the skin that can be felt, unintended loss or gain, darkening or redness of the skin, non-healing sores, or changes to moles, changes in the bowel or bladder movements, regular coughs and difficulty in breathing, difficulty in swallowing, hoarseness of voice, persistent indigestion, or discomfort after having a meal, muscle or joint pains that are unexplained and persistent.
Significance of Cancer Screening
Cancer screening plays a vital role in early detection of cancer which greatly increases the chances for successful treatment. In general, cancer screening helps in detecting any precancerous cells before the symptoms present themselves. The screening can also help in detecting latent or oligosymptomatic cancers at an early stage.
Since the screening can detect cancer at an early stage, providing the right treatment can stop the cancerous cells from growing and spreading. Early detection of cancer also results in less treatment in terms of the usage of chemicals and therapy.
Amongst the cancer survivors, these screening procedures helps in identifying untreated cancer portions and reoccurrences of cancer as well. In recent times, the study of DNA markers has enabled precise detection of most cancers.
Cancer Screening Methods