What Tests Should Be Done When Suspecting Liver Cancer?

Liver cancer is generally a disease that occurs in middle-aged and elderly people. This disease is a malignant lesion that can only be suppressed through chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery to prolong the lifespan of patients. If you suspect you have liver cancer, you can go to the hospital for ultrasound examination, alpha-fetoprotein and B-ultrasound examination, CT examination, and MRI examination to accurately determine whether you have liver cancer and the stage of the disease.

Ultrasound and B-ultrasound examination are convenient and affordable, which can show the morphology, size, and location of the tumor with high diagnostic accuracy. The detection rate of liver lesions is also quite high. It takes about 4-6 months for liver cancer to grow from 1 to 3 cm. If no liver cancer is found on the first B-ultrasound examination, and the tumor size is still below 3 cm after 4-6 months, it is still advisable to treat it at this time.

Blood tests for tumor markers mainly include alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and carbohydrate antigen CA19-9. AFP can be checked through a simple blood test, and generally, AFP is considered elevated if it exceeds 20 ng/ml according to the normal reference range of different hospitals. However, it should be noted that AFP elevation is not necessarily liver cancer, as it can also be caused by hepatitis and reproductive system tumors. Persistent elevation of AFP strongly suggests liver cancer. Additionally, 30% of liver cancer patients do not have elevated AFP levels, so it is necessary to combine B-ultrasound or MRI for detection. For CA19-9, it mainly indicates intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma or mixed-type liver cancer. Currently, the incidence of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma is gradually increasing, so it is recommended to pay attention to it.

MRI has no radioactive radiation and high tissue resolution, which can perform multi-directional and multi-sequence imaging. It is significantly better than CT in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant liver tumors. For patients with severe liver cirrhosis, Promethazine MRI can perfectly perform differential diagnosis between liver cancer and cirrhosis nodules.

CT examination is not the first choice for diagnosing liver diseases. For patients who cannot undergo MRI, enhanced CT can be performed for further diagnosis.

For high-risk groups of liver cancer (patients with hepatitis, cirrhosis, and a family history of liver cancer), targeted examinations should be performed, including blood tests for AFP and B-ultrasound examination every three months. B-ultrasound examination should be performed at experienced hospitals and by experienced sonographers, as the human factor in B-ultrasound examination is very important. Due to limitations such as equipment, anatomical location, operator technique and experience, the sensitivity and qualitative accuracy of detection may be affected.