Cancer Screening

Cancer Screening

Screening (sometimes referred to as "early detection") can find cancer earlier when it is most treatable. This means that cancer can be detected at an earlier stage of the disease, and the chance of surviving five years or more is greater.

The American Cancer Society has published guidelines for screening for certain cancers for men and women at particular ages. See Screening Guidelines.

According to a 2006 health behavior survey, many Virginians are screened for cancer as recommended for their age group (Figure 1):

• 76.5% of women 40 and older had a mammogram within the past two years.
• 90% of women 18 and older had a Pap test within the past three years.
• 53.5% of men 40 and older had a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test within the past two years.
• 65.3% of Virginians 50 and older had either a sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy to screen for colon cancer at least once before.

Figure 1 - Preventive Cancer Screening, U.S. and Virginia, 2006

Source: Virginia Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. National rates are based on the median rate among the 50 states, District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

If you are having trouble reading Figure 1 data, click here to download the PDF version.

There are difference by age, sex, race, and socioeconomic status in who is likely to participate in cancer prevention and screening. Go to Differences in Cancer Screening.

For information on cancer screening in the U.S. and other states, go to the CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) website (http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/).

For full-version fact sheet (in PDF), click on Preventive Cancer Screening.

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