Cancer screening guidelines

Numerous medical organizations have developed cancer screening guidelines. Faced with the broad, and sometimes conflicting. range of recommendations f or cancer screening, family physicians must determine the most reasonable a nd up-to-date method of screening. Major medical organizations have general ly achieved consensus on screening guidelines for breast, cervical and colo rectal cancer. For breast cancer screening in women ages 50 to 70, clinical breast examination and mammography are generally recommended every one or two years, depending on the medical organization, For cervical cancer scree ning, most organizations recommend a Papanicolaou test and pelvic examinati on at least every three years in patients between 20 and 65 years of age. A nnual fecal occult blood testing along with flexible sigmoidoscopy at five- year to 10-year intervals is the standard recommendation for colorectal can cer screening in patients older than 50 years. Screening for prostate cance r remains a matter of debate. Some organizations recommend digital rectal e xamination and a serum prostate-specific antigen test for men older than 50 years, while others do not. In the absence of compelling evidence to indic ate a high risk of endometrial cancer, lung cancer, oral cancer and ovarian cancer, almost no medical organizations have developed cancer screening gu idelines for these types of cancer.