# Early detection

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/early-detection-term/  
OnCo record `early-detection-term` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Finding a cancer while it is still small and confined, when it is most often curable. Five-year survival for most cancers is several times higher at stage I than at stage IV, which is why so much effort goes into detecting them sooner.

## Summary

Early detection covers screening of healthy people, faster diagnosis of people with symptoms, and surveillance of those at high risk (BRCA carriers, Lynch syndrome, cirrhosis, Barrett's oesophagus); it works because a cancer often spends years growing locally before it spreads. Its limits are cancers that spread early or grow from tissue that is hard to image (pancreas, ovary, some lung cancers), and the overdiagnosis of slow cancers that would never have mattered. New approaches include blood tests for tumour DNA and proteins, AI reading of routine scans, and risk-based rather than age-based screening; whether they reduce deaths rather than just shift the stage at diagnosis is the key question.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-09
- Also known as: early diagnosis; detected early; caught early; diagnosed early; found early; earlier detection; earlier diagnosis; detecting cancer early; detect cancer earlier; early-stage diagnosis; diagnostic delay; late diagnosis; late presentation

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_screening#Early_detection
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_screening#Early_detection

## Connected records

- terms: [Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA)](https://onco.cc/terms/ctdna/), [Hereditary cancer syndromes](https://onco.cc/terms/hereditary-cancer-syndromes/), [Prognosis](https://onco.cc/terms/prognosis/), [Screening](https://onco.cc/terms/screening/), [Stage](https://onco.cc/terms/cancer-stage/), [Stage shift](https://onco.cc/terms/stage-shift/), [Tumour marker](https://onco.cc/terms/tumour-marker/)
- fronts: [Early Detection & Screening](https://onco.cc/fronts/early-detection/)
- technologies: [AI in radiology](https://onco.cc/technologies/radiology-ai-screening/), [Liquid biopsy (ctDNA)](https://onco.cc/technologies/liquid-biopsy/), [Multi-cancer early detection (MCED)](https://onco.cc/technologies/mced/), [Whole-body MRI](https://onco.cc/technologies/whole-body-mri/)
- people: [Ali Taher](https://onco.cc/people/ali-taher/)
- journals: [Current problems in cancer](https://onco.cc/journals/current-problems-in-cancer/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/early-detection-term.json