Can a full-body MRI find hidden cancers before symptoms?

Getting a full-body MRI scan to check for problems isn't worth the cost because it often finds harmless things that cause stress and tests, and no one has proven it helps people live longer.

Using a full-body MRI scan might help find cancers in body parts where doctors don’t normally screen people, like without a regular test.

Using a full-body MRI scan to look for cancer early might help find cancer sooner and at an earlier stage, which lets doctors better understand how people get diagnosed over time.

Doctors are testing a full-body scan that can find many types of cancer at once, and they’re using it on both people who pay for it themselves and those who get it for free, to see if rich and poor people are being detected differently.

Using a full-body MRI scan on people who feel fine might help doctors find hidden cancers or other serious health problems early, especially when they use special rules to decide what needs follow-up.