The screens, in plain English
Start with the standard screens for your age: colon, breast, cervical, and lung if you smoked. They have decades of proof behind them. Full-body MRI and multi-cancer blood tests can be added on top, but they don't replace the standard screens, and they often find things that need more tests to sort out.
Think of the standard screens like smoke detectors in the rooms where fires most often start. The newer tests are more like walking through the whole house: you see more, and you also notice plenty of things that turn out to be nothing.
Colon
A colonoscopy looks inside the colon and can remove growths on the spot.
Breast
A mammogram is an X-ray of the breast that finds cancer before it can be felt.
Cervical
A Pap test, an HPV test, or both, from a quick sample at a routine visit.
Lung
A low-dose CT scan of the chest once a year. It is only recommended for people with a long smoking history, because that is where it clearly helps.
Full-body MRI
One scan from head to pelvis with no radiation. It can spot things early, but it often finds small, harmless spots that need more tests to rule out.
Cash price: $499 to $3,900
Multi-cancer blood test
One blood draw that looks for signals from many cancers at once. A signal means more tests, not a diagnosis, and no signal does not mean no cancer.
Prices that clinics publish on their own websites, across all the cities we cover. Prices change, so confirm with the clinic.
Cancer in Palo Alto-Silicon Valley, by the numbers
The rate of past cancer diagnoses in Palo Alto-Silicon Valley is lower than the national rate. About 1 in 18 adults in Palo Alto-Silicon Valley have ever been diagnosed with cancer, other than common skin cancers, compared with about 1 in 13 nationally. That adds up to roughly 86,000 adults in Santa Clara County.
Source: CDC PLACES, 2022 and 2023 county estimates. Palo Alto-Silicon Valley = Santa Clara County, weighted by adult population.
longevityclinicshub.comYour regular doctor can tell you which standard screenings are due for your age. Those come first, and the newer tests above are extras, not replacements.
