Cancer Screenings

There’s a lot you can do to be proactive about your breast health, including completing regular screenings and annual exams. Your doctor will provide recommendations for you based on your personal and family history.

For many patients, this involves:

• Routine self-exams to gain breast awareness
• Breast exams at your wellness visits throughout your 20s and 30s
• Yearly mammograms starting at age 40

To learn more about breast health, visit the Edith Sanford Breast Center website.

Schedule your mammogram today.

Sanford Women’s is at the forefront of revising the breast screening guidelines. Join the WISDOM Study to help end the breast screening confusion.

Cervical cancer can be preventable. Take precautions and get your HPV vaccination in addition to regular screenings. There are currently no guidelines to preventing ovarian cancer, but women who make some lifestyle choices can reduce their risk.

• Patients can get an HPV vaccination as early as age 9.
• Women between the ages of 21 and 29 should have a Pap test every three years.
• Women ages 30 to 65 should have a Pap test and an HPV screening every five years.

Learn more about cervical cancer.

Colorectal cancer screening helps find polyps, or abnormal tissue growths, inside your colon so they can be removed before they turn into cancer.

Your screening options include:

• A colonoscopy, which is a procedure where a physician uses a scope to examine the lining of the colon.
• A fecal immunochemical test (FIT) checks for hidden blood in the stool.
• A FIT-DNA checks for hidden blood in the stool, as well as detects DNA changes.

If you’re at average risk for colorectal cancer, get screened starting at age 45. Discuss your risks and which screening options are best for you with your primary care provider.

Get screened for lung cancer if you are:

• Between the ages of 50 and 80 (age criteria may depend on your insurance company)
• A current tobacco user or quit in the last 15 years
• Smoking or had smoked over 20 packs a year

Tell your physician if you’ve experienced any of the following, as they may prevent you from having a lung screening:

• Recent coughing up blood
• Unexplained weight loss of more than 15 pounds in a year
• Had pneumonia or an upper respiratory infection in the three months leading up to your lung screening

Men ages 55 to 69 can choose to get screened for prostate cancer with periodic prostate-specific antigen-based screening.

Talk to your primary care provider to learn if this screening is right for you.

You may need to undergo skin cancer screenings depending on your personal and family risk factors.

We recommend getting familiar with your normal pattern of freckles, moles and blemishes with:

• Monthly skin self-exams
• Yearly visual skin exams by your primary care provider or dermatologist