What tests can detect early liver cancer

With today's medical conditions, early-stage liver cancer can be cured. Once it develops into advanced liver cancer, it cannot be cured. Therefore, regular physical examinations are very effective for early detection and early treatment of liver cancer. So what tests are needed for early-stage liver cancer? Five major examination methods for early-stage liver cancer:

1. Ultrasound examination: B-ultrasound examination is economical and convenient, and can show the size, shape and location of the tumor, with a diagnostic accuracy rate of about 90%. The detection rate of liver lesions is also relatively high. Generally speaking, it takes about 4 to 6 months for liver cancer to grow from 1 cm to 3 cm. Therefore, if liver cancer is not found in the first B-ultrasound liver cancer examination, it should be taken again after 4 to 6 months. The liver cancer should still be below 3 cm, and the treatment effect should be good.

2. CT: CT is a very important method for liver cancer examination, and it is widely used in China. However, when the diameter of liver cancer is less than 2 cm or the density is close to that of normal liver parenchyma, it is difficult to show it on CT. Liver cancer is diffuse and difficult to detect on CT; it is difficult to distinguish between primary and secondary liver cancer.

3. PET-CT: PET-CT is one of the examination items for early detection of liver cancer. Patients with hepatitis B and other conditions may consider the examination. PET-CT is a functional molecular imaging system that integrates PET and CT. It can not only accurately locate the anatomical location of the lesion through CT morphological imaging, but also reflect the biochemical metabolic information of the liver's space-occupying tissue through PET functional imaging. At the same time, the whole body scan can understand the overall condition and evaluate the metastasis, so as to achieve the purpose of early detection of lesions. At the same time, it can understand the size and metabolic changes of the tumor before and after treatment.

4. Magnetic resonance imaging: MRI examination: It is a type of examination method that has developed rapidly in recent years. In the past, MRI was not as ideal as CT examination. Now with the continuous development of MRI technology, the scanning time is getting faster and faster, and the resolution is getting higher and higher. It can also make a relatively accurate judgment for some small lesions in the liver. Now MRI also plays a very important role in the examination of liver cancer.

5. Alpha-fetoprotein test: When ultrasound and/or CT scans are suspected of early liver cancer, an alpha-fetoprotein test is generally recommended for auxiliary diagnosis. Alpha-fetoprotein test is also one of the most common test methods to see if there are tumor markers. Alpha-fetoprotein has a certain sensitivity for the test, but we have also found in clinical practice that some patients may not have high alpha-fetoprotein levels. The alpha-fetoprotein level of liver cancer patients can be high, but patients with low alpha-fetoprotein levels cannot completely rule out the possibility of liver cancer.

For the health of you and your family, I hope that everyone's regular check-ups can help us detect liver cancer in time, and regular physical examinations can help us get treatment early and stay away from the pain of the disease.