Detailed explanation of the diagnosis method of small cell lung cancer

Everyone is familiar with small cell lung cancer. Small cell lung cancer often appears in our lives. Its existence causes harm to the patient's body and mind. The best treatment period for small cell lung cancer is in the early stage. Patients should discover the disease in time, and receive timely examination and treatment. The following will explain in detail the diagnosis method of small cell lung cancer.

Small cell lung cancer is a terrible disease that seriously threatens people's lives. Surveys show that the incidence of lung cancer has been increasing in recent years, which is closely related to the current air pollution. Small cell lung cancer accounts for about 20% of lung cancer. It is highly malignant, has a short doubling time, metastasizes early and widely, is sensitive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, has a high initial remission rate, but is prone to secondary drug resistance and relapse. Treatment is mainly based on systemic chemotherapy. What are the diagnostic methods for small cell lung cancer?

1. Bronchoscopy: It has a high positive rate for diagnosing central lung cancer, and the tumor can be seen directly, and a biopsy can be taken at the same time.

2. Mediastinoscopy: It has a high positive rate for the diagnosis of central lung cancer and can observe the lymph nodes under the anterior tracheal carina and take biopsies at the same time.

3. X-ray examination. Central lung cancer has no obvious X-ray signs in the early stage, but block shadows or atelectasis will appear in the late stage; peripheral lung cancer is typically manifested as isolated round or oval block shadows around the lung field, with different sizes, rough edges, and short thorn shadows around.

4. Radionuclide lung scan. Radionuclide is injected intravenously, and then a lung scan is performed. Radionuclide concentration images are shown at the cancerous site, with a positive rate of up to 90%.

5. Metastatic lesions or tissue examination. Mostly used for advanced patients, supraclavicular, cervical, and axillary lymph nodes can be biopsied.

6. Pleural effusion examination: After the pleural effusion is extracted and centrifuged, the precipitate is taken for smear examination to look for cancer cells.

7. Thoracotomy. For patients who cannot be diagnosed with lung cancer and cannot be ruled out, if they are in good general condition, exploratory thoracotomy can be performed. Treatment preparations should be made before the examination.

8. Thoracic puncture or tissue examination: This method has a high positive diagnostic rate, but it has complications such as pneumothorax, bleeding, infection, and cancer cell spread along the needle track.

9. Sputum cytology examination: The accuracy rate of finding detached cancer cells in sputum can reach more than 80%, and it often requires multiple examinations over several consecutive days.