Preventing and Checking for Cancer

I am a radiation oncologist and having witnessed the effects of many different cancers and their required treatments, the best approach I want to recommend is preventing cancers in the first instance and also early detection.

Positivity and proactivity go hand-in-hand, and our philosophy is founded in a strong belief that there is much we can do to take control of our health – there is always positive action we can take.

Prevention strategies can include proactive health management, and lifestyle choices.

Certain cancers can now likely be prevented by effective immunisation, including hepatitis B and also the Human Papilloma Virus HPV. Staying up to date with immunisations is therefore an easy and important prevention step.

Other cancers require cancer risk minimisation, meaning mainly lifestyle choices. This can include having a healthy diet, exercising regularly, smoking cessation, avoiding excessive intake of alcohol, protecting your skin and getting tested for hepatitis C.

Having regular checks for cancers may pick cancers up while they are still early. This can be self-checks such as examining your own oral cavity for cancers, doing regular breast self-examinations and also testicular self-examinations as well. Knowing your own body is critical.

There are a number of cancers which you can check for more formally. This is called cancer screening. Screening means checking for a cancer before you develop symptoms. When caught early, you significantly increase your chance of being cured and you also reduce the likely impact the cancer treatments will have on you. This is because cancers that are caught early tend to be smaller, and less likely to have infiltrated surrounding tissues. They also tend not to have spread into neighboring glands or nodes and are also much less likely to have and metastasized to other sites which may make it incurable. In general, the earlier the cancer is found and the sooner the treatment is started, the more successful the treatment will be with the added bonus you may experience lesser side effects as a smaller region needs to be treated.
Advanced cancers can also reduce your performance status, which may make certain treatments unsuitable for you as a result. This will hamper your chance of an otherwise better outcome.

The good news is that your own family physician can screen you for a number of these cancers but in some situations, specialized examinations and investigations are needed as well. Speak to your family physician about this or find a clinician who can help screen you for cancers as well.

Cancer screening for specific cancers will start off with your doctor interviewing you and inquiring of your current concerns and symptoms, your medical history, including previous or current medical conditions and treatments, previous cancers, previous vaccinations such as hepatitis B, HPV, medication history, industrial exposure, smoking and alcohol intake history as well as recreational history. A family history is also required as if there is a predisposition to certain cancers in your family line, you may need to start certain cancer screenings at a much earlier age than the general public. A strong family history of cancer may need genetic testing as well as there is a risk of not only you developing cancer but also your offspring.

A physical examination occurs to check for cancers of the head and neck region, the skin, the breast, the collar and arm pit regions, the lungs, the abdomen, the groin and testicles, prostate and cervical regions.

Relevant screening tests are based on your demographic details, your risk factors, and as guided by your history and examination findings. If an abnormality is detected, further investigations are required.

Currently, there are already established screening programs for a number of common cancers, including:

Ongoing evaluation is being carried for biomarkers or tumour markers called Multi Cancer Early Detection tests (MCED). It may be that in time these test may be a useful tool in cancer screening as well.

Full body scans for cancer, although they sound like a good idea, are not at this point in time recommended if you do not have symptoms or a cancer diagnosed.

Cancer screening, although done with good intentions, comes with some risks. This includes false positives, unnecessary testing-which have their own risks and cost, false reassurance if its negative but the screening test did not pick up the cancer well and overdiagnosis of a patient with a slow growing cancer which does not require prompt treatment as its unlikely to be harmful if left for a few years. This can include low risk prostate cancers.
On the whole, it is very beneficial to discuss cancer screening with your doctor and participating if advised to do so. If in doubt, do check it out.

1. What Cancer Screening Tests Check for Cancer? – National Cancer Institute
2. Head and Neck Cancer: Screening | Cancer.Net
3. Cancer Screening Tests | CDC

© Ramesh Pandey March 2025