The Detailed Diagnosis of Lung Cancer

A lot of patients find that they get lung cancer either since they present symptoms like persistent coughing and wheezing, at times coughing up blood or pain the chest and stomach. This typically induces further examination of the chest, usually calling for an x-ray (which might also take place as part of a routine health check) and the testing of sputum samples.

At this point more examinations will be called for reliant upon the results.

Detailed Diagnosis

The intention of a chest radiograph or x-ray is to identify enlarged lymph nodes in the chest or the existence of a mass in the lungs. More advanced methods could be employed to give much more detailed information and include the following:
CAT Scan or CT Scan - a CT Scan is a computer assisted examination which gives a cross-sectional image of the body under examination;



MRI Scan - a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan make use of hydrogen ions within the patient's body which respond to magnetic fields when they are applied to the body or in this case, the chest. A computer afterward employs the results to make a chest image which lets for exact location of any mass which has been identified and whether it involves the lungs;

Bronchoscopy - this engages an examination of the airways (the windpipe and lung branches) and is typically conducted by a pulmonologist (a physician who focuses in respiratory diseases). The examination possibly will engage the taking of a swab from these areas or a biopsy (the taking away of a tissue sample);

Needle Biopsy - a physician put in a needle making use of the results of a CT Scan to direct where the needle, thus a sample of tissue might be removed from the mass which has been identified; the tissue samples achieved are subsequently "smeared" on a microscope slide and observed by a histopathologist to identify whether the cells are cancerous; and

Bone Scan - this test might be undertaken to make sure whether any cancer cells have extend (identified as "metastasized") to the bones from the original tumor.

A technological advancement is the CT/PET fusion imaging scan - this diagnostic tool utilizes an injected sugar solution which has a radioactive element to emphasize any cancerous mass. Cancer tumors are extremely fast growing and employ many energy thus they quickly absorb the sugar solution which is build up around and in the tumor.

When a scan is subsequently done, the concentration of the radioactive sugar is noticed and gives the location and detail of the cancer tumor. It ought to be borne in mind that there are other tissues which will lead to the sugar solution to accumulate like a bacterial infection, thus even this test is not conclusive.

Once lung cancer has been diagnosed, the team of oncology physicians treating the patient will evaluate the outcomes to measure the treatment alternatives for the lung cancer and to make sure whether any spread of the illness has occurred to other areas of the body. Where it is found the illness has not extended to other areas of the body, in that case a surgical inspection might take place to appraise the disease in detail around the lungs, heart, windpipe and tissues of the chest.

Additionally, extensive blood tests will happen to search for cancer "markers" which are typically proteins that are related with the development of lung cancer.