Screening

A general-practice overview of the major national cancer screening programs and opportunistic screening recommendations. Each program is owned in full clinical detail by its own category — this page is a navigational hub plus the headline facts a GP needs at a glance. For the MBS-funded structured health assessment items (45–49, 75+, the ATSI health check and others), see Preventive Activities & Health Assessments by Age — a health assessment item cannot itself include a screening service, so the two sit alongside each other rather than overlapping.

Prostate cancer

This note previously said PSA screening was not routinely recommended… even for those with a family history” — that guidance has been reversed. “The RACGP Red Book 10th edition (2024) now recommends a risk-based offer of PSA testing:

• From age 50 for average-risk men.
• From age 45 for men with a first-degree relative diagnosed with prostate cancer.
• From age 40 for men with multiple affected relatives, or a known BRCA2 mutation.
• Repeat every 2 years if PSA <3.0 ng/mL; every 1–3 months if PSA >3.0 ng/mL pending further work-up.
• Not offered if life expectancy is <7 years.

See Prostate Cancer & PSA Screening for the full risk-based algorithm, mpMRI-before-biopsy pathway, and active surveillance criteria.

Colorectal cancer

The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) offers a free, biennial immunochemical faecal occult blood test (iFOBT) — the screening age was lowered from 50 to 45 in July 2024, extending to age 74. Symptomatic patients (rectal bleeding, unexplained iron-deficiency anaemia, persistent bowel habit change) need direct colonoscopy referral regardless of screening status or a negative iFOBT. See Bowel Cancer Screening for the full symptomatic-referral triage, polyp surveillance intervals, and early-onset colorectal cancer detail.

Breast cancer

BreastScreen Australia offers free two-yearly mammography from age 50–74 (eligible from 40, actively invited from 50); Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are recommended to start from age 40.

Breast density is now reported to women in writing (national policy since the 2024 position statement; state rollout uneven), so density letters arrive in general practice. The 2025 GP Guidance stratifies screening interval and supplemental imaging by density × family-history risk — some women move to yearly screening, and BI-RADS C/D at moderate risk need a calculated absolute risk (iPrevent/Tyrer-Cuzick) to test MBS-funded MRI eligibility. See Breast Cancer & Screening.

Cervical cancer

The National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP) uses 5-yearly primary HPV testing from age 25–74, with self-collection now available to all eligible people regardless of screening history (universal eligibility from July 2022). See Cervical Screening for the current pathway.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm

No national population screening program exists in Australia (unlike the UK). Targeted opportunistic screening (one-off ultrasound) is reasonable in men aged >65 with a smoking history, or anyone with a first-degree relative with AAA. See AAA.

Other opportunistic screening

Cardiovascular risk assessment (from age 45, or 30 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) — see Cardiovascular Risk Assessment. Osteoporosis risk assessment and bone density — see Osteoporosis.