What are the tests for confirming esophageal cancer

If you want to know the treatment of esophageal cancer, then the first task is to confirm the diagnosis! What are the tests for confirming esophageal cancer? Here are 5 methods for early esophageal cancer examinations recommended for better diagnosis of esophageal cancer. Let's take a detailed look below, which may be helpful to you.

1. Esophageal exfoliative cytology examination: This method is simple, less painful, and has a low false positive rate. Practice has shown that it is feasible to conduct large-scale surveys in areas with a high incidence of esophageal cancer. The overall positive rate can reach more than 90%, making it the preferred method for early esophageal cancer examination.
2. X-ray barium meal radiography. This method is difficult to show except for very early esophageal cancer. Experienced radiologists fully adjust the barium and ask the patient to swallow it in small sips at a time. Careful observation from multiple angles and double contrast of barium meal can usually reveal signs of early cancer such as thickening, tortuosity or dotted interruptions of the esophageal mucosa, hairiness of the esophageal edge, small filling defects, small niches, localized stiffness of the tube wall, or barium retention.
3. Fiberoptic endoscopy Since the 1970s, fiberoptic optical endoscopes have gradually replaced metal rigid tube endoscopes. Due to their flexibility, good lighting, wide field of vision, safety and accuracy, they have become a reliable method for routine clinical diagnosis, postoperative follow-up and efficacy observation of upper gastrointestinal diseases (esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, etc.). In early esophageal cancer, the detection rate of fiberoptic endoscopes can reach more than 85%.
4. There are different opinions on the role of chest CT scan in diagnosing esophageal cancer, but it is helpful for staging esophageal cancer, determining the possibility of resection, and estimating prognosis.
5. Esophageal endoscopic ultrasound examination In recent years, esophageal endoscopic ultrasound examination has been gradually applied in clinical practice. Its advantages are that it can accurately measure the depth of lesions infiltrating the esophageal wall; it can measure abnormally enlarged lymph nodes outside the wall; and it can easily distinguish the location of lesions in the esophageal wall.