Know the tests recommended for you During Cancer Control Month, take time to consider tests that could detect cancer at an early and curable stage. It should include health counseling and could include examinations for cancers of the thyroid, mouth, skin, lymph nodes, and testes. Women over age 40 should have a mammogram each year.
Early detection is a key reason for the declining death rate from breast cancer.
A monthly breast self-examination should be done by women of all ages. Most breast cancers are discovered this way. Colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy. Men and women aged 50 or older should have a sigmoidoscopy every five years and a colonoscopy every 10 years. Finding cancer of the colon or rectum in the early stage greatly increases chances of a cure.