How to diagnose lung cancer? Commonly used methods for diagnosing lung cancer

How is lung cancer diagnosed? Many friends are very concerned about this issue. After all, lung cancer is a type of malignant tumor. They are afraid of misdiagnosis. In fact, there is no need for this. Medicine is so advanced now, and there are many ways to check lung cancer. So which method can confirm lung cancer? We consulted an oncologist on this issue. At present, the following methods are commonly used in clinical diagnosis of lung cancer.

Commonly used lung cancer diagnosis method 1: open lung biopsy

If cytological diagnosis is not established by sputum cytology, bronchoscopy, and needle biopsy, open lung biopsy should be considered, but the decision must be made after careful consideration of the pros and cons based on the patient's age, lung function, and surgical complications. In addition, in some cases, histological diagnosis can be made by biopsy of metastatic lesions, such as the liver, lymph nodes, bones, or bone marrow. When the tumor involves the pleura, the diagnostic rate of thoracentesis combined with pleural biopsy can be as high as 90%.

Commonly used lung cancer diagnosis method 2: Radionuclide scanning examination

The difference between the amount of radionuclides taken up by tumor cells and normal tissues is used to locate and qualitatively diagnose tumors. The method is simple and non-invasive. There are two methods currently used, one is radionuclide tumor positive imaging, and the other is separate immune tumor imaging. The former uses tumor marker compounds as imaging agents for tumor imaging. Although the performance is stable, the specificity is poor. The latter uses radionuclide labeled tumor antigens or their neoplastic antigens to prepare specific antibodies as imaging agents for tumor localization diagnosis. It has high specificity, but the preparation process is complicated, there are many influencing factors, and the stability is not as good as the former. In recent years, positron emission tomography (PET) has been developed, and the use of 18C acetic acid can more accurately diagnose whether lung cancer of & 1 cm and multiple lymph nodes of lung cancer have metastases.

Commonly used lung cancer diagnosis method 3: Computed tomography (CT)

The main advantage of CT is that it can detect anatomical findings that cannot be displayed by X-rays, especially those located behind the heart, in the paraspinal groove, at the apex of the lung, near the diaphragm, and in the rib head. It can also identify whether there is enlargement of the hilar and mediastinal lymph nodes. If the diameter of the mediastinal lymph nodes is greater than 20mm, the tumor invades multiple fat spaces or surrounds large blood vessels, surgery is basically impossible. CT can also detect whether the tumor directly invades adjacent organs. Spiral CT can detect lesions larger than 3mm. Its detection rate for metastatic cancer is higher than that of ordinary tomography.