How to diagnose gastric cancer? How is gastric cancer detected?

Many people don't go to the hospital for physical examination every year, and only wait until the physical pain is unbearable to check for treatment, which leads to the loss of confidence in treatment after the diagnosis of cancer and is not ready to accept it. So, how to diagnose gastric cancer? How is gastric cancer detected? Let's have a look.

How to diagnose gastric cancer

(a) blood routine and fecal occult blood examination:

Anemia is particularly common in patients with gastric cancer, and about 50% have iron deficiency anemia, which may be caused by long-term blood loss. Or it is caused by nutritional deficiency. If there is malignant anemia, megaloblastic anemia can be seen. If the patient's fecal occult blood test is continuously positive, it may be a patient with gastric cancer. This test is convenient and has the significance of auxiliary diagnosis. Some scholars regard it as the first choice for the diagnosis of gastric cancer.

(2) Analysis of gastric juice:

Analysis of gastric juice is of little significance. Although advanced gastric cancer may appear as acid-free or low gastric acid secretion because it involves gastric acid secretion area, this low gastric acid secretion can overlap with normal people, so it is not listed as a routine examination and is also one of the diagnostic methods of gastric cancer.

(3) Detection of tumor markers:

The specificity of gastric cancer markers in clinical diagnosis of gastric cancer is not strong. Serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is of little significance for diagnosis. Although the content of CEA in gastric juice of half patients was significantly increased, exceeding 100 ng/ml, it also overlapped with the content of CEA in gastric juice of chronic atrophic gastritis. Recently used gastric cancer-related antigen, it is said that the positive rate is more than half, but there is still a certain proportion of false positive.

(4) X-ray barium meal examination:

X-ray examination is still of great value in the diagnosis of gastric cancer. In recent years, with the application of air-barium double contrast method, compression method and hypotonic contrast technology, as well as the use of high-density barium powder, the fine structure of mucosa can be clearly displayed, which is conducive to finding tiny lesions.

(5) gastroscopy:

Gastroscopy combined with mucosal biopsy is the most reliable diagnostic method for gastric cancer at present. The diagnosis rate of gastric cancer by experienced endoscopists can reach over 95%. Therefore, it is necessary to take more biopsy specimens. More than one block. Gastroscope is the best diagnostic method for early gastric cancer. Microscopically, early gastric cancer can show mucosal discoloration, or local mucosa is granular and rough, or shows slight changes, so biopsy should be done. The size of cancer should be estimated under a microscope. Less than lcm is called small gastric cancer, and less than o.5cra is called small gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer is the first malignant tumor of digestive system. Early gastric cancer is asymptomatic or the symptoms are hidden, which is not easy to detect. With the progress of the disease, the function and general condition of the stomach will change before obvious symptoms appear.

How is gastric cancer detected?

1, to improve the vigilance and understanding of gastric cancer. Nearly half of patients with early gastric cancer have no clinical symptoms, and only some patients have mild dyspepsia and other symptoms, such as dull pain and discomfort in the upper abdomen, mild fullness, pain, nausea and belching. Most patients are in the middle and late stage when they see a doctor, because people generally have misunderstandings about gastric cancer. If there are symptoms such as slight eating obstruction, epigastric pain, loss of appetite, etc. Don't go to the hospital for treatment, just eat the stomach medicine on the market; Faced with unexplained symptoms such as emaciation and fatigue, they often think that it is caused by work fatigue and excessive mental stress. Various conditions make it impossible to diagnose the disease early. Therefore, once middle-aged and elderly people have upper abdominal pain, bloating, emaciation and dysphagia, they must be vigilant.

2. Check and treat precancerous lesions. The World Health Organization has listed patients with chronic atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, atypical hyperplasia of gastric mucosa, gastric ulcer, gastric polyp and benign gastropathy after subtotal gastrectomy as precancerous lesions of gastric cancer. Helicobacter pylori infection (the risk of gastric cancer is 3 ~ 6 times that of Helicobacter pylori negative infection) should be checked and treated regularly.

3, gastroscopy. Endoscopic diagnosis should be the first choice for the diagnosis of early gastric cancer. For cases suspected of ulcer, gastric dysplasia or gastric cancer, endoscopic observation can quickly obtain the basis for early pathological diagnosis.

4. Image inspection. X-ray gas-barium double contrast radiography is also a method for early detection of lesions, but in order to make a clear diagnosis, gastroscopy and biopsy should still be mobilized to obtain pathological diagnosis.

5. Ultrasonic endoscopy. Now there is a new gastroscope, which can be equipped with an ultrasonic probe. It can make an early diagnosis of gastric protuberant lesions such as submucosal or extragastric tumors, and can clearly show the structure of each layer of the gastric wall and the depth of tumor invasion.

6. Suspicious patients must be followed up within 1 ~ 3 months.

Early symptoms of gastric cancer

Symptoms 1: Stomach pain

Most patients with gastric cancer have symptoms of stomach pain at the early stage of the disease. At first, I just felt uncomfortable or swollen in the upper abdomen, and sometimes I felt a dull pain in my heart. Therefore, it is often mistaken for gastritis or ulcer by patients, and the symptoms can be temporarily relieved after treatment. If the lesion occurs in the patient's gastric antrum, it can induce changes in duodenal function and cause rhythmic pain similar to ulcer, which is often ignored by patients. It is not until persistent pain or even symptoms such as black stool and hematemesis occur that the patient's attention is aroused. At this time, the patient's condition has often developed to the late stage of gastric cancer and the best treatment opportunity has been lost.

Therefore, we must be alert to stomach pain. Stomach pain is an early signal of gastric cancer, and there is no particularity, especially for people over 40 years old. We should do gastroscopy in time and make a clear diagnosis.

Symptom 2: loss of appetite, emaciation and fatigue.

The patient has anorexia, emaciation and fatigue, which is also a common and unspecific early signal of gastric cancer. Loss of appetite without stomach pain may be an early manifestation of gastric cancer. If it happens at the same time as stomach pain, you should pay special attention to it if you rule out hepatitis. Some patients automatically restrict their daily diet after eating because of symptoms such as abdominal distension and belching, which leads to weight loss, emaciation and fatigue. Because the position of abdominal distension is mostly under xiphoid process or on the right side, it is easy to be misdiagnosed as gallbladder disease.

Symptom 3: nausea, vomiting, hematemesis and bloody stool.

Early gastric cancer patients may also feel full after eating, accompanied by mild nausea. Cardiac tumors can start with eating disorders, and then gradually appear symptoms such as dysphagia and food reflux. Patients with early gastric cancer often have bloody stool symptoms, which is caused by the destruction of small blood vessels in the stomach. Patients with a small amount of gastric bleeding may have positive fecal occult blood, and patients with a large amount of bleeding may have hematemesis and black stool. Elderly people who have no stomach problems on weekdays should be especially alert to the occurrence of gastric cancer once they have black stool.

In addition, symptoms such as diarrhea, constipation, discomfort in the lower abdomen, deep tenderness when pressing the upper abdomen, and mild muscle tension can also be regarded as early signs of gastric cancer, and comprehensive examination should be carried out as soon as possible.