What tests can confirm liver cancer? Introduction to 7 liver cancer tests

With the development of modern medicine, the research on liver cancer has also made further progress, and the update of medical equipment has increased the confidence of patients. For example, the update of examination methods allows everyone to have an accurate result and receive treatment in time. The following is an introduction to the examination methods for liver cancer.

1. The most commonly used examination is liver ultrasound. Ultrasound examination is a non-invasive examination and has no adverse effects on human tissues. It is simple to operate, intuitive and accurate, low-cost, convenient and non-invasive, and widely popular. It can be used for the screening of liver cancer and follow-up after treatment.

2. CT has become an important routine means of diagnosing liver cancer. Abdominal enhanced CT scans can clearly show the size, number, shape, location, boundary, tumor blood supply, and relationship with the intrahepatic ducts of liver cancer, which is important for further clarifying the diagnosis and distinguishing it from other benign liver lesions. At the same time, it is also important to clarify the staging and grading of liver cancer, which is important for guiding treatment and judging prognosis. Image analysis software can also be used to reconstruct the various ducts in the liver, accurately track the course of blood vessels in each liver segment, the relationship between tumors and blood vessels, simulate the surgical resection plane, and calculate the volume of the pre-resected tumor and the remaining liver volume, greatly improving the safety of the operation.

3. Liver-specific MRI can improve the detection rate of small liver cancer. It is also helpful for differentiating liver cancer from focal hyperplastic nodules and hepatic adenomas, and can serve as an important supplement to CT examinations.

4. pET (positron emission tomography)-CT whole-body scan can understand the overall condition and evaluate tumor metastasis, and can more comprehensively determine the tumor stage and prognosis, but it is relatively expensive and is generally not used as the first choice.

5. Selective hepatic artery angiography is an invasive examination. Since liver cancer is rich in blood supply, mainly supplied by the hepatic artery, hepatic artery angiography can clearly show the blood supply of small liver lesions and tumors. After a clear diagnosis, iodized oil can be injected to block the tumor supply vessels to achieve the purpose of treatment. It is suitable for patients who have not been diagnosed after other examinations. Patients with hepatitis B and C should have regular checkups, and if possible, they should have annual physical examinations. Liver B-ultrasound is the most basic examination.

6. Angiography: Although there are many methods for auxiliary diagnosis of liver cancer in clinical practice, angiography still has a high diagnostic value in the diagnosis of liver cancer. It can make a more accurate diagnosis of small liver cancers less than 2 cm. However, because it is a invasive examination, it is not easily accepted by patients. Therefore, angiography is not widely used in clinical practice.

7. Imaging examination: B-ultrasound and spiral CT are simple, fast, non-invasive and valuable methods for examining liver cancer. They can show changes in the size, shape, location of the tumor, and the presence of cancer thrombi in the liver and portal vein. If the diameter of the liver cancer is less than 2 cm or the density is close to that of normal liver parenchyma, it is difficult to display it with B-ultrasound and CT. MRI can be used to scan the layers in different orientations to more clearly show the metastatic lesions and location of liver cancer, which can provide important reference value for the operation.