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Debunking cancer myths: Myth Number 4

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The myth: Regular checkups and today’s medical technology can detect all cancer early.

Routine screening has clearly led to an impressive decrease in deaths from several cancers, including cervix, breast and colon cancers. Although regular medical care can indeed increase your ability to detect cancer early, it can’t guarantee it. Cancer is a complicated disease, and there’s no sure way to always spot it. Cancer cells can grow anywhere in your body, often deep within it. Until the cancer reaches a certain size, there isn’t a technology or an exam capable of detecting it. By the time you can feel a breast cancer lump, for instance, the cancer may have been there four to six years. Scientists are looking for tests capable of detecting cancers even earlier, but these tests are experimental and have not yet been proved effective. Watch out for Myth Number 5 same place, same time next week!(Source: Mayoclinic: Cancer Specialist Dr Timothy Moynihan: 3rd June 2003)


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Posted On: 16 June, 2003
Modified On: 3 December, 2013

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