How to diagnose liver cancer early

Early liver cancer often has no specific symptoms. Many patients with early liver cancer are discovered accidentally during physical examinations, and most patients go to the hospital for treatment only after they have clinical symptoms. At this time, they have lost the opportunity for radical surgical resection due to the late stage of the disease.

Early detection of liver cancer and early diagnosis and treatment of these patients are important ways for liver cancer patients to achieve long-term survival. The natural course of liver cancer is about two years from the time of hepatocellular carcinoma, and symptoms often appear in the last six months or so. AFP can be positive eight months before symptoms appear, so when there are no symptoms, checking AFP may reveal early liver cancer. Physical examinations in healthy people or regular examinations in people at high risk of liver cancer can effectively detect early liver cancer.

Usually, alpha-fetoprotein and B-ultrasound examinations are performed twice a year. A single blood test for alpha-fetoprotein is not enough, because only 60% to 70% of liver cancer patients have elevated alpha-fetoprotein. Using alpha-fetoprotein alone will miss about 1/3 of liver cancer patients, while B-ultrasound examinations can currently detect lesions as small as 0.5 cm.

AFP combined with B-ultrasound examination during the general screening can effectively detect early liver cancer. For high-risk groups with hepatitis B and C virus infection or a family history of liver cancer, a liver cancer screening should be conducted at least once every 6 months, which is very important for early detection of liver cancer.