Importance of cancer screening

Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of cells. There are several different types of cancer like bladder, breast, cervical, brain and blood. Cancer is caused when unnaturally growing cells starts to negatively affect other cells and the normal functioning of the body. Cancer cells do not follow the life cycle of other cells in the body like birth, growth and death. Instead, they keep on multiplying their number and are very hard to kill.

Since there are different types of cancers, so their symptoms are also vastly different. However, there are some symptoms that can common to all cancers. Some of these symptoms are-
• Sudden weight loss and fatigue- If a person is suffering from consistent fatigue, there might be chances that he or she may be suffering from cancer. Suddenly loosing lots of weight is another warning sign. Consult your physician, as soon as you can, if you start losing weight without any reason.
• Fever and flu- Fever and flu are another common symptom of cancer. They are mostly related to blood cancer.
• Change in bowel habits- Abrupt changes in bowel habits like constipation, gas and diarrhea can also indicates towards colon cancer.
• Changes in skin- Skin cancer can cause sudden changes in skin tone and color without any reason.
• Pain- Pain is a very common symptom of cancer, but in most cases it appears only in the later stages.

Remember, all these are only preliminary symptoms, which may or may not lead to cancer. Proper diagnosis is required to confirm whether a person is actually suffering from cancer or not.

Preventive screening is the best way to detect cancer in its early stages. Early detection of the disease is very important in the fight against cancer. In many cases of cancer, treatment is possible only in the first stage, after that it becomes very tough to completely eliminate all the cancer cells. Preventive screening of some of the cancers is described below-
• Preventive screening of cervical cancer- Pap smear test is very effective in screening cervical cancer. It helps in detecting cervical cancer in its very early stage or even before the cancer starts developing. Introduction of Pap smear has dramatically reduced the mortality rate due to cervical cancer.
• Preventive screening of bladder cancer- Bladder cancer is very tough to detect using preventive screening test. The best way to detect bladder cancer is cystoscopy.
• Preventive screening of breast cancer- It includes clinical test and self breast exams. In self breast exam, any abnormality in the breast can be detected in the early stage. It is one of the easiest screening test and also one of the most reliable one.