Hello,
I can understand your concerns and
anxiety with a family history of cancer.
Routine screening procedures are different for specific cancers.
For breast, it starts with self examination for lumps and
mammography after 35 years. For
cervical cancer, you can start getting a
Pap smear every year now. For
lung cancer, chst x ray is being now evaluated for screening. There are a few blood tests that can cover for markers of cancer as well. All these procedures are available for low cost.
There are a few cancer that can be caused by defects in genes and they are transmitted within the family. A whole body imaging procedure such as a PET scan can be helpful in such situations. From what you have mentioned, it doesnot look like to be the case with your family. Since PET scan is a costly procedure, I would suggest you reserve it for the last and not as a screening procedure.
You can get it done once some time in the course and later on follow up with other routine procedures described above. Please go for the simpler tests first.
Hope this could be of help.
Regards.