Several commonly used methods in lung cancer examination

Lung cancer is a common malignant tumor. In recent years, the incidence and mortality of lung cancer have increased. If we pay attention to the early screening of lung cancer, we can detect lung cancer at an early stage, which plays an important role in improving the survival rate of patients. Common examination methods are as follows:

1. X-ray examination

X-ray examination is the most commonly used and important means of diagnosing lung cancer. It can be used to understand the location and size of lung cancer. Early X-ray examinations generally do not show lung masses, but may show local emphysema and atelectasis caused by bronchial obstruction, or infiltrative lesions or lung inflammation in the vicinity of the lesion.

2. Bronchoscopy

Bronchoscopy is an important measure for diagnosing lung cancer. Bronchoscopy can directly observe the pathological changes of the bronchial endothelium and lumen. If cancer or cancerous infiltration is seen, 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.

3. Cytological examination

In most patients with primary lung cancer, detached cancer cells can be found in their sputum, and the histological type of the cancer cells can be determined. Therefore, sputum cytology is a simple and effective method for lung cancer screening and diagnosis.

The positive rate of sputum cytology examination for central lung cancer can reach 70%~90%, while the positive rate of sputum cytology examination for peripheral lung cancer is only about 50%. Therefore, a negative sputum cytology examination cannot rule out the possibility of lung cancer.