What tests should be done when liver cancer is suspected? The most commonly used test for early liver cancer is this

Liver cancer is a very serious malignant disease. The probability of death is only slightly lower than that of gastric cancer and esophageal cancer. Every year, more than 110,000 people die from liver cancer. The occurrence of liver cancer seriously threatens everyone's life safety and health. The symptoms of liver cancer are usually not obvious in the early stage. If you wait until the disease appears to be present and go to the hospital for treatment, then the disease is mostly in the middle and late stages. Therefore, in order to facilitate the early detection of liver cancer, scientific examination methods must be used. So what examinations should be done when liver cancer is suspected?

What tests should be done when liver cancer is suspected?

1. Clinically, it is relatively easy to identify hepatitis B, and B-ultrasound is the most important method for early diagnosis of liver cancer. The advantages of B-ultrasound are that it is easy to operate, relatively cheap, and has a very high probability of detecting most liver space-occupying lesions. However, the probability of detecting liver cancer nodules smaller than one centimeter through ultrasound is only about 35%. Therefore, if the nodules of liver cancer in the early stage are smaller than one centimeter, B-ultrasound cannot confirm the diagnosis, and it needs to be combined with other examination methods to obtain an accurate diagnosis.

2. Among most imaging examinations, CT examination is the most clear in showing the pathological condition of the liver, such as the size, shape, location, number of lesions in the liver, and whether there is hemorrhage and necrosis in the lesions. The invasiveness of the disease can be effectively known from the edge of the lesion, and the invasiveness can be understood from the symptoms of cancer thrombus in the portal vein and the invasion. CT is considered to be the preferred non-invasive diagnostic method to supplement ultrasound imaging to estimate the scope of the lesion.

3. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a method of examination that has developed rapidly in recent years. In the past, MRI was not as ideal as CT examination. However, with the improvement of MRI technology, the scanning results can be reported more quickly and the resolution is especially clear. It can also accurately judge tiny lesions in some parts of the liver. Therefore, MRI plays a very important role in the examination of liver cancer.

4. When B-ultrasound and CT scans are performed, if the patient is suspected of early-stage liver cancer, an alpha-fetoprotein test is generally recommended for auxiliary diagnosis. Blood alpha-fetoprotein test is one of the most basic test methods, which can determine the number of tumor markers and has a high sensitivity.

5. Angiography of early primary liver cancer can also be performed. Non-invasive methods such as ultrasound, CT, and MRI can already detect relatively many small liver cancers. However, angiography still plays a certain role in the diagnosis of liver cancer. Angiography can often make a more accurate and rapid diagnosis of small liver cancers less than two centimeters. When B-ultrasound, CT, and MRI examinations cannot be found or the results are vague and cannot be diagnosed, angiography of primary liver cancer can be performed.

6. Liver tissue biopsy or cytology is also indispensable. Ultrasound or CT-guided biopsy or fine needle aspiration for histology or cytology is an effective method to confirm the diagnosis of small liver cancer with a diameter of less than 2 cm. Percutaneous fine needle aspiration cytology can effectively determine the nature of liver tumors and has high accuracy in diagnosing early primary liver cancer. The most common complication is bleeding. Therefore, before the examination, you should first ensure that the patient's coagulation function is normal. Other serious complications include the spread of cancer cells in the puncture needle eye and damage to small arteries causing massive bleeding, which are relatively rare. The occurrence of complications is related to the experience, skills and thickness of the puncture needle of the puncturist.

Kind tips

Through the detailed introduction above about what examinations to do when liver cancer is suspected, we can understand in detail that there are many clinical methods for early liver cancer examination. Only by combining them with each other can we more accurately detect early liver cancer, make liver cancer disappear in the early stage, and health can accompany every day.