Are the tumor markers abnormal during physical examination? Got cancer? Doctor: Not necessarily! Teach you how to read physical examination reports

Although people often do tests for tumor markers, many people don’t know much about them. In fact, the detection of tumor markers can help everyone detect cancer, or it can be used as an indicator of cancer recurrence, and the prognosis of tumor patients can be judged through this examination, which is of great significance to everyone.

However, it is actually incorrect to judge whether you have cancer simply by relying on tumor markers.

If the tumor markers are abnormal, is it cancer?

In fact, it is not correct to equate tumor markers with cancer, because there is no way to diagnose cancer only by simply increasing tumor markers, because it not only exists in human tumor cells, There are also some benign tumors and normal body tissues.

For example, inflammation or physiological changes may lead to abnormal tumor markers. During the process of drawing blood, if people cause blood contamination or damage blood cells, it may also lead to tumors. During the screening, it was found that the tumor markers were elevated, so this examination alone cannot be used as the basis for the diagnosis of cancer.

Therefore, it can be said accurately that even if this test is abnormal, it does not mean that you have cancer, because there are many reasons for the abnormal occurrence of tumor markers, especially if the tumor markers are slightly abnormal. When it is elevated, non-neoplastic diseases may be present in the body.

For example, CEA is a tumor marker specific to the stomach and lungs. However, pregnancy, smoking, high blood sugar, etc., can also slightly increase CEA, and an increase in prostate-specific antigen does not mean that it is 100% prostate cancer.

Also, alpha-fetoprotein is a tumor marker for diagnosing liver cancer, but there are varying degrees of abnormalities in alpha-fetoprotein in patients with liver disease, pregnancy, infants, and reproductive system tumors.

Therefore, tumor markers are not very specific to tumors and can only play an auxiliary diagnostic role.

Regarding tumor markers, what should everyone pay attention to?

1. The higher the tumor marker, the higher the probability of malignant tumors.

If the tumor marker is dozens of times higher than the normal level, it will be higher than the normal level. It can more accurately help everyone judge cancer, but it does not mean that it is definitely cancer.

For example, in patients with chronic hepatitis, alpha-fetoprotein may be as high as 1,600 micrograms per liter, but no liver masses were found during enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, and as people's liver function improves With improvement, alpha-fetoprotein will gradually decrease, which can rule out the possibility of liver cancer.

Therefore, we cannot simply rely on tumor markers, but need to make a comprehensive judgment based on clinical symptoms.

2. Comprehensive judgment, combined with ultrasound or other imaging examinations

Imaging examinations or gastrointestinal endoscopy can help everyone discover malignant tumors, and tumor markers in the blood If it rises more than twice the normal value, it may be cancer.

If a marker is about one and a half times smaller than the normal value, it is called a mild increase. However, if there is no tumor in the gastrointestinal examination or imaging examination, it is probably not cancer. It just requires regular observation.

In short, after the above introduction, everyone should view tumor markers correctly and do not conclude that they have cancer if they find abnormal tumor markers, because it needs to be combined with other clinical examinations, such as When it comes to imaging examinations and pathological examinations, a diagnosis can only be made through comprehensive judgment.

In addition, everyone needs to find abnormalities and seek medical treatment promptly according to their own circumstances, so as to achieve early detection and prevention.