Cancer Screening 

Routine cancer screening is like preventive maintenance for the most important vehicle you’ll ever drive—your body.

Screening finds cancer while it’s still tiny, local, and easily treated, long before symptoms would send you to a doctor. In recent decades, this early-detection approach has averted almost 4.75 million cancer deaths in common cancers, particularly for breast, colorectal, cervical, and prostate cancers. In high-risk groups for lung cancer, screening has prevented thousands more deaths.

In short: screening means more birthday candles, fewer hospital stays, and a better shot at living life on your terms.

Mammograms are the original zoom lens—they can detect breast cancer years before a lump becomes noticeable.

Regular screening enables detection at stage I, when the five-year survival rate is around 99%. Screening has dropped breast cancer death rates by 44% over three decades, a combination of earlier detection and improved therapies. Most guidelines recommend mammography every 1–2 years starting between ages 40 and 50, adjusted for personal risk.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Digital mammography has roughly 87% sensitivity for detecting cancer, and regular screening reduces breast cancer mortality by as much as 30% in women age 40–69. In screen-detected early-stage breast cancers, five-year survival regularly exceeds 99%, while later-stage diagnoses see survival drop dramatically.

Without a doubt.

FIT (fecal immunochemical test) offers a simple at-home option, and when combined with timely colonoscopy, these tests have driven a 49% drop in colorectal cancer (CRC) deaths since 1990 in North America.

Early-stage CRC discovered through screening boasts a five-year survival rate over 90%. Colonoscopies not only find cancer, they remove pre-cancerous polyps—preventing cancer before it starts.

Early detection is a game-changer: A positive FIT, followed by colonoscopy within one year, maximizes the chance of catching curable cancer or high-risk polyps. Waiting more than a year increases the chance of advanced disease. High-quality, on-schedule screening is a life saver.

Reminder: In Canada, you should start screening for colorectal cancer with a FIT test every two years starting at age 50.

Traditional X-rays are mostly tourist class compared to low-dose CT scans, which are first-class for detecting lung cancer early in high-risk people (long-term smokers, age 50–80). Major studies found low-dose CT reduced lung cancer deaths by up to 20%. With early-stage detection, five-year survival leaps from under 20% to over 60%.

Let’s hear it for prevention you can do in your pajamas. BC’s HPV self-swab program is making screening more accessible—empowering people to catch pre-cancer before symptoms begin. Screening has slashed cervical cancer rates and, in countries with robust programs, nearly eliminated the disease. Modern HPV tests are more sensitive than the traditional Pap, and early intervention saves lives.

The PSA blood test and a digital rectal exam (DRE) are the main tools for early detection. Localized prostate cancer, when caught early, has astounding cure rates: five-year survival is nearly 100%. However, not all prostate cancers are “bad actors.” The challenge is finding the dangerous types while avoiding over diagnosis and unnecessary treatment—a nuanced, shared decision with your doctor.

With regular screening, five-year survival for breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers exceeds 90–99%—sometimes even higher. When found at late stages, survival plummets by 40–80%, depending on the cancer type and spread. Screening converts cancer from a crisis into a manageable challenge.

No screening test is perfect. Risks include false positives, unnecessary biopsies, anxiety, and, rarely, treatment for cancers that would never have caused harm (over diagnosis). But giant meta-analyses show screening raises off-target (non-cancer-related) mortality by less than 1%—while dramatically reducing cancer deaths. For most people in guideline-recommended groups, the benefits for longevity and healthspan far outweigh the potential downsides.

Knowledge saves lives; worry changes nothing.

Cancer screening doesn’t just prevent deaths—it saves lifetimes, letting people spend more years healthy, active, and in control of their own stories. The best screening is the one that’s done on time and tailored to personal risk: a major tool in any serious longevity strategy.