Screening for brain tumours This page is about screening for
brain tumours. Screening means testing people for early stages
of a disease before they show any signs of having it. Before
screening for any type of cancer can be carried out, doctors
must have an accurate, simple, quick and cost effective test to
use. The test must be reliable in picking up cancers that are
there. And it must not give a positive result in people who do
not have cancer. The only test that can find a brain tumour is a
brain scan - usually with either a CT scanner or MRI scanner.
These are very expensive tests and CT scans give a dose of
radiation. Brain tumours are quite rare. So if screening was
used, large numbers of people who were well would have brain
scans that they did not need. So at the moment screening is not
currently recommended or practical for brain tumours. Rated 5
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