What is the examination method for colorectal cancer

With the improvement of living standards, the quality of life has also greatly improved. Many people choose high-calorie, high-fat foods. For young people, crude fiber and coarse grains seem to have withdrawn from people's lives. This has led to the occurrence of various diseases. Colorectal cancer is one of them. How to check for colorectal cancer, which has a very high incidence rate! Let us introduce it to you in detail below.

1. Laboratory examination

Blood routine, complete biochemistry (liver and kidney function + serum iron), stool routine + fecal occult blood and other laboratory tests can help understand whether the patient has iron deficiency anemia, liver and kidney function and other basic conditions. Testing for blood tumor marker carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) can help diagnose tumors. In patients with colorectal cancer, high CEA levels do not mean that there is distant metastasis; in a few patients with metastatic tumors, CEA levels are not elevated.

2. Endoscopic examination

Colonoscopy is to insert a fiber colonoscope into the ileocecal region at the beginning of the colon to examine the colon and rectal cavities, and perform biopsies and treatments during the examination. Colonoscopy is more accurate than barium enema X-rays, especially for small colon polyps, which can be removed by colonoscopy and confirmed by pathology. Removal of benign polyps can prevent them from turning into colorectal cancer, and cancerous polyps can help clarify the diagnosis and treatment.

3. Biopsy and exfoliative cytology

Biopsy is of decisive significance for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer, especially early cancer and polyp cancer, as well as for differential diagnosis of lesions. It can clarify the nature, histological type and malignancy of the tumor, judge the prognosis and guide clinical treatment. Exfoliative cytology has high accuracy, but the sampling is cumbersome, and it is not easy to obtain satisfactory specimens, so it is rarely used in clinical practice.