What tests should be done to detect early lung cancer

What tests are done to detect early lung cancer? There are many ways to detect early lung cancer, including chest X-ray, CT, MRI, PET-CT, etc. They are all of great guiding significance for the diagnosis of early lung cancer. So, what tests are done to detect early lung cancer? How is early lung cancer detected?

1. Bronchoscopy

It is a very important method in the examination of lung cancer. Through bronchoscope, the pathological changes of the bronchial lining and lumen can be directly observed. If cancer or cancerous infiltration is observed, tissue can be taken for pathological section examination, or bronchial secretions can be aspirated for cytological examination to clarify the diagnosis and determine the histological type.

2. Radionuclide examination

Radioactive drugs such as 67Ga-citrate have an affinity for lung cancer and its metastatic lesions. After intravenous injection, they can be concentrated in the tumor and can be used to diagnose lung cancer and show the extent of the cancer. The positive rate can reach about 90%. This is also one of the examination items for lung cancer.

3. X-ray examination

This type of lung cancer examination can help you understand the location and size of lung cancer. Although X-ray examinations of early lung cancer cases may not show a mass, local emphysema and atelectasis caused by bronchial obstruction, or infiltrative lesions or pulmonary inflammation near the lesion may be seen.

4. Pathological examination

Pathological cytology examination includes sputum exfoliative cytology, fiberoptic bronchoscopy and percutaneous lung puncture, etc. Among them, sputum exfoliative cytology is the simplest, economical and effective method for pathological diagnosis, with a positive rate of 60% to 80%. It is generally believed that the positive rate of sputum examination for central lung cancer is higher than that for peripheral lung cancer.