What are the ways to check if you have lung cancer? Introduction to five ways to check for lung cancer

What should you do if you suffer from lung cancer? Many people don’t know how to deal with this disease, so how to check for this disease? Many people are also confused. In order to solve everyone’s confusion about the examination of this disease, experts finally came to the following conclusion after multi-party investigation, hoping it will be of some help to everyone.

1. Radionuclide examination

Radioactive drugs such as 67Ga-citrate have affinity for lung cancer and its metastatic lesions. After intravenous injection, they can be concentrated in the tumor and can be used to locate lung cancer and show the extent of the cancer. The positive rate can reach about 90%.

2. X-ray examination

X-ray examination is the most commonly used and important means of diagnosing lung cancer. Through X-ray examination, the location and size of lung cancer can be understood. Although X-ray examination of early lung cancer cases cannot yet show a mass, local emphysema and atelectasis caused by bronchial obstruction or infiltrative lesions or pulmonary inflammation in the vicinity of the lesion may be seen.

3. Bronchoscopy

Bronchoscopy is an important measure for diagnosing lung cancer. Through bronchoscope, the pathological changes of the bronchial lining and lumen can be directly observed. If cancer or cancerous infiltration is observed, tissue can be taken for pathological section examination, or bronchial secretions can be aspirated for cytological examination to confirm the diagnosis and determine the histological type.

4. Thoracotomy

If the nature of the lung mass cannot be determined after multiple examinations and short-term exploratory treatments, and the possibility of lung cancer cannot be ruled out, a thoracotomy should be performed if the patient's general condition permits. During the operation, appropriate treatment will be given based on the condition of the lesion and the results of pathological tissue examination. This can avoid delaying the disease and causing lung cancer cases to lose the opportunity for early treatment.

5. Cytological examination

Most patients with primary lung cancer can find detached cancer cells 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 for central lung cancer can reach 70-90%, while the positive rate for sputum cytology for peripheral lung cancer is only about 50%. Therefore, a negative sputum cytology test cannot rule out the possibility of lung cancer.