Are multi cancer screening tests worth the money?

Van writes in with, 'A friend is encouraging me to take a cancer screening test that screens for many different cancers. A review of one test says: "While overall it picks up 90% of stage 4 cancers, it only detects an average of 17% of stage 1 cancers. Yet it is being touted as a test that can detect cancer early." Are these tests worthwhile?' James Tytko took on the question with the help of Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, Founding Director of the Early Detection Institute at the University of Cambridge... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists