Cancer screening is an Australia's health topic

Cancer is a major cause of illness and death in Australia – it is estimated there will be close to one million people alive at the end of 2025 who have been diagnosed with cancer over the last 10 years. Latest data (2017–2021) show that 7 in 10 people diagnosed with cancer survive at least 5 years after diagnosis, up from 5 in 10 around 30 years ago (AIHW 2025a).

Understanding and avoiding the risk factors associated with cancer can help to reduce the chance of getting the disease. Improvements in treatments and care are also important contributors to improvements in survival. Some cancers can be detected through screening. Cancer screening programs aim to reduce illness and death from certain cancers by allowing for early detection, intervention, and treatment.

This page focuses on cancer screening programs in Australia. For information on cancer incidence, mortality, prevalence, and survival, see Cancer.

What is cancer screening?

Population-based cancer screening involves testing for signs of cancer or conditions that cause cancer before a person has symptoms. Early detection of cancer allows for early intervention and treatment, which can improve outcomes.

In Australia, there are national population-based screening programs for breast, cervical, and bowel cancers, and a national targeted screening program for lung cancer that commenced on 1 July 2025. They are run through partnerships between the Australian Government and state and territory governments. The programs target certain groups where evidence shows that screening helps to reduce ill health and deaths from cancer. Data are reported for BreastScreen Australia, the National Cervical Screening Program, and the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program below. Data will be reported for the National Lung Cancer Screening Program in the future when data from this new program become available.

Breast cancer screening

Breast cancer screening on this page refers only to breast cancer screening undertaken through BreastScreen Australia.

BreastScreen Australia began in 1991 targeting women aged 50–69. The inclusion of women aged 70–74 was phased in from 1 July 2013. The program provides free 2-yearly screening mammograms to women aged 40 and over, and actively targets women aged 50–74.

The term ‘participant’ is respectfully used to denote a person who has breast tissue that is suitable for breast cancer screening and who screens through BreastScreen Australia. Participants may include women, transgender men, transgender women, non-binary people, or other gender diverse people.

Participation in BreastScreen Australia

Over the 2 years 2023–2024, more than 1.9 million participants aged 50–74 were screened through BreastScreen Australia – 52% of the target population.

This was similar to the more than 1.9 million who screened over the 2 years 2022–2023, which also equates to 52% of the target population (AIHW 2025b).

The age-standardised participation rate remained between 53% and 54% from 2014–2015 to 2018–2019 and decreased to 49% and 47% in 2019–2020 and 2020–2021, respectively, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thereafter, age-standardised participation increased to 50% in 2021–2022, 51% in 2022–2023, and to 52% in 2023–2024 (AIHW 2025b).

The most recent complete participation data are for participants who had a screening mammogram in the years 2022 and 2023, with preliminary data for participants who had a screening mammogram in the years 2023 and 2024.

Participation in BreastScreen Australia varied between population groups and across areas of Australia in 2022–2023:

  • Almost two-thirds (36%, or around 31,000 participants) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) women aged 50–74 participated in BreastScreen Australia. After adjusting for age, participation was 30% lower for First Nations women than for non-Indigenous women.
  • Two-fifths (40%, or around 290,000 participants) of women who spoke a language other than English at home participated in BreastScreen Australia. After adjusting for age, participation was 26% lower for women who spoke a language other than English at home than for women who spoke only English at home.
  • After adjusting for age, participation was 32% lower for participants living in Very remote areas than for participants living in Inner regional areas (AIHW 2025b).

Detection of breast cancer

In 2023, more than 6,400 participants aged 50–74 had an invasive breast cancer detected through BreastScreen Australia, and 58% of those breast cancers were small (≤15 mm). Small breast cancers are associated with more treatment options and improved survival (AIHW 2025b).

For more information, see BreastScreen Australia monitoring report 2025.

Cervical screening

People with a cervix are at risk of cervical cancer and are the eligible population for cervical screening. People with a cervix may include women, transgender men, intersex people, and non-binary people, hereafter respectively referred to as ‘people’ or ‘participants’.

All cervical screening is undertaken through the National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP). From its commencement in 1991 to 30 November 2017, the NCSP offered 2-yearly Papanicolaou tests, or ‘Pap tests’ for the target age group 20–69.

Since December 2017, a renewed NCSP offers 5-yearly human papillomavirus (HPV) tests for the target age group 25–74 to detect the presence of cancer-causing HPV.

Participation in the National Cervical Screening Program

From 2025, participation is defined as the number of participants aged 25–74 who had an HPV test over 5.5 years as a proportion of the number of eligible females aged 25–74 in the population. Participation should therefore not be compared with data from earlier years.

Over the 5.5 years 2020–June 2025, more than 5.5 million participants aged 25–74 were screened through the NCSP, which is 78% of the eligible population (AIHW 2025c).

The age-standardised participation rate has decreased over time, from 81% over the 5.5 years 2018–June 2023, to 79% over the 5.5 years 2019–June 2024, and to 78% in 2020–June 2025 (AIHW 2025c).

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cervical screening is not clear, however, towards the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2020), there was a disproportionate drop in cervical screening tests not observed in later years over the same month (AIHW 2025c).

Participation in the NCSP varied between population groups and across areas of Australia in 2020–June 2025:

  • After adjusting for age, participation was 12% higher for participants living in Major cities than for participants living in Very remote areas.
  • After adjusting for age, participation was 24% higher for participants living in the highest socioeconomic areas than for participants living in the lowest socioeconomic areas (AIHW 2025c).

Detection of cervical abnormality

In 2024, for every 1,000 participants screened, 7 participants had a high-grade abnormality detected, providing an opportunity for treatment before possible progression to cervical cancer (AIHW 2025c).

For more information, see National Cervical Screening Program monitoring report 2025.

Bowel cancer screening

Bowel cancer screening on this page refers to the screening managed by the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP).

The NBCSP was established in 2006, offering screening using a free immunochemical faecal occult blood test (iFOBT) to people at 2 target ages (55 and 65). In 2014, the Australian Government announced that the target ages would be expanded to offer 2-yearly screening to all Australians aged 50–74. This expansion was completed in 2020.

Participation in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program

Over the 2 years 2022–2023, of the 6.3 million people invited, 42% participated in the program. Participation was higher for women than men (44% and 40%, respectively) (AIHW 2025d).

Since the expansion of the program from 2014, the NBCSP participation rate increased from 39% in 2014–2015 to 44% in 2019–2020. There was a small decline in the participation rates following the COVID-19 pandemic to 41% in 2020–2021 and 42% in 2022–2023 (AIHW 2025d).

Participation in the NBCSP varied between population groups and across areas of Australia in 2022–2023:

  • The participation rate was highest for people living in Inner regional areas (44%) and lowest for people living in Very remote areas (25%).
  • The participation rate was highest for people living in the highest socioeconomic areas (46%) and lowest for people living in the lowest socioeconomic areas (36%) (AIHW 2025d).

Detection of bowel cancer

In 2023, 5.9% of participants aged 50–74 who returned a valid kit had a positive iFOBT. Of those with a positive result, 86% had record of a diagnostic assessment (colonoscopy) to follow up the positive screening result.

The return of NBCSP forms is not mandatory and as a result, diagnostic assessment data are incomplete. However, with the data available for participants who underwent a diagnostic assessment after a positive screen in 2023:

  • 3.8% were diagnosed with a confirmed or suspected bowel cancer
  • 23% were diagnosed with an adenoma (pre-cancerous tumour) (AIHW 2025d).

First Nations people, as well as participants who lived in Very remote areas and participants who lived in low socioeconomic areas all had higher rates of positive screens (warranting further assessment), but lower rates of follow-up diagnostic assessment, and a longer median time between a positive screen and assessment (AIHW 2025d).

Overall detection of bowel cancer using linked cancer diagnosis data

A linkage project to match bowel cancers diagnosed from 2006 (when the NBCSP started) to 2020 (the latest available complete national cancer diagnosis data) has recently been undertaken. These results, plus incomplete diagnosis data for January 2021 to June 2024, have shown that the NBCSP has detected at least 16,803 bowel cancers between 2006 and June 2024. This is likely a slight undercount due to the incomplete data noted.

As mentioned in the following section, people with screen-detected bowel cancers have been shown, on average, to have a lower risk of dying from bowel cancer than those diagnosed with bowel cancer outside of the NBCSP.

For more information, see National Bowel Cancer Screening Program monitoring report 2025.

How effective are the cancer screening programs?

National cancer diagnosis data do not reveal if a new case of cancer was identified through a screening program. This information can currently only be determined using data linkage. Linkage work conducted by the AIHW examined the effectiveness of the 3 national cancer screening programs on cancer mortality (AIHW 2018).

Key findings included:

  • Women aged 50–69 who were diagnosed with a breast cancer through BreastScreen Australia between 2002 and 2012 had a 42% lower risk of dying from breast cancer by 2015 than women with breast cancers who had never been screened.
  • Most (more than 70%) cervical cancers diagnosed in women aged 20–69 between 2002 and 2012 occurred in women who had never screened or who were lapsed screeners.
  • People aged 50–69 who were diagnosed with a bowel cancer detected through the NBCSP between 2006 and 2012 had a 40% lower risk of dying from bowel cancer by 2015 than those with a bowel cancer who had not been invited to screen during the study period (AIHW 2018).

Further data linkage work is needed to continue to monitor cancer screening outcomes over time, and as more data become available. The AIHW is currently progressing 3 data linkage projects:

  • The afore-mentioned data linkage project that produced detection of bowel cancer results will also produce cervical screening results in late 2025 and 2026, including more complete monitoring of cervical screening as well as monitoring the impact of HPV vaccination.
  • A second data linkage project will examine adverse events after NBCSP-related colonoscopy.
  • A third data linkage project will provide more detailed analysis of breast screening behaviour and cancer outcomes, including among First Nations women.

Where do I go for more information?

For more information on cancer screening, see:

For more on this topic, see Cancer screening and Cancer.