Early diagnosis method of gallbladder cancer

Among the malignant tumors of the gallbladder, gallbladder cancer ranks first, and others include sarcoma, carcinoid, primary malignant melanoma, giant cell adenocarcinoma, etc. The advent of gallbladder cancer often troubles patients and their families. The treatment of gallbladder cancer is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also difficult to treat. So what are the methods for early diagnosis of gallbladder cancer? Let's follow the editor to find out!

Gallbladder cancer is closely related to gallbladder stones. In fact, many patients with gallbladder cancer are transformed from gallbladder stones. Therefore, all the symptoms of gallbladder cancer are basically the same as those of gallbladder stones, and there are no specific symptoms of gallbladder cancer. Because the tumor develops quickly, by the time the diagnosis of gallbladder cancer is made, most gallbladder cancers are already in the late stage.

The symptoms of most patients with gallbladder cancer are similar to those of chronic cholecystitis and cholelithiasis, that is, dull pain in the right upper abdomen accompanied by indigestion. In addition, there are yellowing of the skin and sclera, a lump that can be felt in the right upper abdomen, low fever, poor appetite, weight loss, etc. If the above symptoms occur, you should highly suspect that you have gallbladder cancer and do further examinations.

Among various diagnostic tests, B-ultrasound should be chosen first. B-ultrasound scans can show that the gallbladder is full of substantial masses and the gallbladder wall is thickened and irregular. Many patients have gallstones in their gallbladders and irregular thickening of the gallbladder wall, which indicates the possibility of gallbladder cancer. Currently, various commonly used laboratory tests, such as liver function, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), etc., are not very helpful in diagnosing gallbladder cancer. Most gallbladder cancers are first diagnosed by B-ultrasound. According to reports, the accuracy rate of B-ultrasound in diagnosing gallbladder cancer can reach 65%-70%.

As for some other examination methods, they are not widely used because of their limited diagnostic value. For example, oral gallbladder transillumination is not very valuable because the gallbladder is not visualized and the gallbladder lesions cannot be clearly seen. Retrograde pancreaticocholangiography (ERCP) and percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography (PTC) are also not widely used because the contrast agent does not easily enter the gallbladder, resulting in poor gallbladder visualization and difficulty in seeing the lesions.

There are also reasons on the patients' side that gallbladder cancer cannot be diagnosed early: first, most patients are middle-aged or elderly, and their symptoms are not severe, which does not attract enough attention from patients and doctors; second, due to long-term gallbladder stones, patients and doctors tend to attribute the symptoms to cholelithiasis and cholecystitis; third, although there are many examination methods, they all have certain limitations and false negatives, which will make patients and doctors satisfied with "normal" results.

Through the above introduction, I believe everyone has a certain understanding of the early diagnosis of gallbladder cancer. Gallbladder cancer is a huge disaster for the patient's family, so we must work hard to prevent gallbladder cancer and hope that everyone can have a healthy body.