Background: The reportedly low awareness of cancer in Nigeria constitutes public health concern. Objective: To determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice of cancer screening among undergraduate and postgraduate students in Port Harcourt. Methodology: A structured questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions were distributed among students of tertiary academic institutions in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Students’ socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of cancer screening, attitude towards cancer screening and practice of cancer screening were assessed. Data were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 23. Results: Of the 307 respondents, 55.7% were males while 44.3% were females. Majority - 95.1% were undergraduates. Apart from breast cancer which had a fair level of awareness (52%), there was poor level of awareness of screening for other important/common cancers as shown thus: prostate 13.3%, cervix 11%, gastric 9% and colon 4.7%. On usefulness of cancer screening, 59% of the students indicated that cancer screening was advantageous because it allows early diagnoses, 17.7% opined that it prevents the development of cancer while13.4% indicated that it makes for better treatment of cancer. In spite of the fact that 83% of the respondents will recommend cancer screening to friends and relatives, only a meagre 14.6% of these same respondents had undertaken any form of cancer screening. Conclusion: Among students of tertiary institutions in Port Harcourt, there is good knowledge of cancer screening, poor awareness of the common screenable cancers and very poor practice of cancer screening. This is a key set back in the quest for early detection of cancers. We advocate free cancer screening, its integration into the curriculum of tertiary institutions where it is non-existent and increase in its awareness to the public.

Keywords: Cancer screening, students, tertiary institutions, Port Harcourt.