Early detection of gallbladder cancer

Gallbladder cancer is a common malignant tumor, the main histological type is adenocarcinoma. In the late stage of gallbladder cancer, there will be jaundice, ascites, cachexia, and gallbladder enlargement. The early symptoms of gallbladder cancer are extremely atypical and difficult to diagnose. Clinically, it is often the case that the best time for treatment is missed due to patient neglect. Therefore, early detection of gallbladder cancer is very necessary.

1. Ultrasound examination: Ultrasound examination is simple, non-destructive and can be used repeatedly. Its diagnostic accuracy rate is over 90%, making it the preferred examination method for diagnosing gallbladder diseases.
2. CT scan: CT scan is not as good as ultrasound for the diagnosis of early gallbladder cancer. However, for patients who have been found to be highly suspected of gallbladder cancer by ultrasound, enhanced CT examination is necessary.
3. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): MRI is generally not the first choice or necessary examination for gallbladder cancer. It can only be considered when it is necessary to determine whether the lesion involves the liver or when the patient has obstructive jaundice.
4. PET-CT: As a relatively qualitative examination item, under the premise of excluding acute cholecystitis, this examination can help to make a qualitative diagnosis of gallbladder space-occupying lesions and help determine whether there are lesions other than the gallbladder, but it is relatively expensive.
5. Laboratory examination: When gallbladder lesions become cancerous, they are generally accompanied by an increase in tumor marker levels. Checking whether serum tumor markers (CEA, Ca125, Ca19-9, Ca724, Ca153, etc.) are elevated is helpful for qualitative diagnosis of gallbladder cancer, but early cancer may not show an increase, or when combined with other digestive tract diseases and certain tumors, the test may have false positive results.
The above are some of the examinations that need to be done when diagnosing gallbladder cancer. As long as it is detected, diagnosed and treated early, gallbladder cancer is not very scary, especially for early cancer patients, it is very possible to become a healthy person again.