6 laboratory tests for brain cancer patients

Brain cancer refers to a new growth in the cranial cavity, also known as an intracranial tumor. It can originate from the brain, meninges, nerves, blood vessels and brain appendages, or invade the skull by metastasizing from other tissues or organs in the body. Most of them can cause headaches, intracranial hypertension and focal symptoms.

Laboratory tests

(1) Fundus examination: Observe whether there is optic disc edema. Optic disc edema is a sign of increased intracranial pressure. It is one of the three symptoms of increased intracranial pressure, along with headache and vomiting. However, it is only seen in one-quarter of patients. Therefore, we cannot simply rule out the possibility of a brain tumor based on a negative eye examination.

(2) Head X-ray: It helps to understand whether there is increased intracranial pressure, local destruction or hyperplasia of the skull, enlargement of the sella turcica, displacement of pineal calcification and pathological calcification in the brain tumor. It is helpful for positioning and qualitative diagnosis. However, the positive rate of X-ray is less than one-third, so brain tumors cannot be ruled out due to negative X-ray results.

(3) Electroencephalogram (EEG): It is valuable for locating fast-growing brain tumors in the cerebral hemispheres, as the amplitude and frequency of the affected side can be seen to be reduced. However, it is not very helpful for diagnosing brain tumors in the midline, deep in the hemisphere, and infratentorially. The EEG topography developed after the 1970s can graphically display the location and range of intracranial lesions and is more sensitive to the diagnosis of brain tumors than conventional EEG. Its main manifestation is abnormal slow wave power in the tumor area and around the tumor area, which is an effective screening method before CT examination.

(4) Brain CT scan: The detection rate of brain tumors can reach over 90%. It is easy to display the size, shape, number, location, density and nature of the lesions, and the anatomical relationship is clear. It is currently the main diagnostic method for brain tumors.

(5) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): It can show most intracranial tumors and peritumoral edema, and can accurately show the location, size, and shape of the tumor. It is an important additional examination method for CT, especially for tumors of the skull base and brain stem close to the bones, such as benign supratentorial astrocytoma, which can show white matter abnormalities and make up for the missed diagnosis of CT without abnormal findings. Therefore, MRI is more suitable for early diagnosis.

(6) Biochemical test: For patients with pituitary tumors, especially those with excessive secretion of anterior pituitary hormones, blood biochemical tests can be used to confirm the condition. Prolactin, growth hormone, adrenocorticotropic hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone, gonadotropin, etc. can be tested to clarify the nature of pituitary disease. Among them, prolactinoma is the most common, accounting for about 50%, followed by growth hormone adenoma and adrenocorticotropic hormone adenoma.