What tests are done to diagnose early lung cancer

Early stage lung cancer is a hidden disease, and many patients are asymptomatic and difficult to detect. So what tests are needed to confirm early stage lung cancer? Patients over 40 years old, especially those with high risk factors for lung cancer, such as a history of smoking and long-term chronic lung disease, are advised to have regular anti-cancer physical examinations every year to screen for lung cancer at an early stage.

If you suspect you have lung cancer, what tests should you do to confirm the diagnosis?

There are many ways to diagnose lung cancer. The most direct and effective way is CT screening. For patients with unclear early lesions, CT or PET-CT can be used for diagnosis. Lung cancer is a complex disease. Many patients have problems with their blood even before there is any sign of blood problems in their lungs. For these patients, monitoring can be carried out by testing blood biochemical indicators.

1. Enhanced CT scan for lung cancer.

Since some lung cancer lesions cannot be visualized by CT, patients need to undergo enhanced CT. Enhanced CT injects contrast agents to visualize the lesion tissue, thereby discovering hidden lesion tissue and achieving the purpose of diagnosis.

2. PET-CT.

It combines two devices with different imaging principles, PET and CT, and fuses images. The fused images have both rich physiological and delicate anatomical structures. Biochemical functional information can provide a basis for quantitative and qualitative diagnosis of the precise location of tumors and other lesions. PET-CT can not only detect lesions of 2mm in the lungs, but also metastatic lesions throughout the body.