Cancer Research UK logo.
SearchDonate
  • Search
Health professionals

Cancer screening

Learn about the UK’s cancer screening programmes and how you can support informed screening participation.

UK cancer screening programmes

Across the UK, there are national screening programmes for breast, bowel and cervical cancer. Additionally, some nations are beginning targeted lung screening.

Illustration of a bowel.

Bowel

Find out about FIT, read the latest evidence and find resources to support informed participation.

Silhouette of a body on a navy blue background with the breast area highlighted in pink.

Breast

Learn more about breast screening across the UK, how to support informed participation and ongoing research to optimise services.

Illustration of a cervix.

Cervical

Get resources to support uptake, including information on safety netting and barriers to participation.

Illustration of lungs.

Lung

Read information on the rollout of targeted screening and other ways to improve lung cancer outcomes.

About cancer screening in the UK

Cancer screening at a glance

At-a-glance information, including uptake and eligibility across the UK.

Screening at a glance(PDF, 93 KB)

Reducing inequalities in screening

Tips and information to help address breast, bowel and cervical screening inequalities.

Reducing inequalities in cancer screening(PDF, 306 KB)

Early diagnosis resources

Explore our Early Diagnosis Data Hub

Our Early Diagnosis Data Hub gathers information and statistics across a number of cancer early diagnosis and screening measures.

Early Diagnosis Data Hub

Read our early diagnosis policy

To improve screening programmes, it’s vital to standardise processes for how evidence and research is gathered.

Our policy on early diagnosis

Overdiagnosis

Overdiagnosis is the diagnosis of a cancer that wouldn’t have gone on to cause harm in a person’s lifetime. In other words, if the person hadn’t been tested (whether that’s screening or some other type of test), the person might never have known they had cancer, and would not have died from the disease.

Overdiagnosis is one of the key things to consider when working out the balance of possible benefits and harms of cancer screening. 

Read more on overdiagnosis

Information for the general public

Read about the UK’s screening programmes, eligibility, benefits and risks.

Read our public cancer screening information


Contact us

You can contact our Strategic Evidence team if you have any questions.

Email us

Stay connected

Follow Cancer Research UK Health Professionals

Read news, updates and opinion, posted weekly.

Sign up for our Health Professionals newsletters

Stay up-to-date with the latest cancer research information.