How to diagnose early stage liver cancer

  In the past, MRI was not as ideal as CT examination, but nowadays, with the continuous development of MRI technology, the scanning time is getting faster and faster, and the resolution is getting higher and higher, so it can be used as a more accurate judgment for some small lesions in the liver.  The second one is fetoprotein test to see if there are tumor markers. Fetoprotein has a certain sensitivity for detecting liver cancer, but we also find that some patients with early stage liver cancer may not have high fetoprotein, but patients who do not have high fetoprotein cannot be completely excluded from liver cancer.  The third one is CT examination. CT examination is a very important tool to detect liver cancer, and it has been done more often in China.  The fourth is ultrasonography, which is also a means to diagnose liver cancer at an early stage. The characteristics of ultrasonography are that it is easier to operate, less expensive and has a higher detection rate of liver lesions.  The fifth one is isotope examination, there is an advanced examination instrument PET-CT, which can make a realistic diagnosis of early stage of liver cancer, the sensitivity of PET-CT is not as sensitive as the previous ones, but the sensitivity of metastatic cancer is very high.  The sixth one is angiography, although it is very accurate for early diagnosis of liver cancer, this method is invasive, firstly, an incision has to be made in the femoral artery, and a tube has to be inserted into the femoral artery, and then into the hepatic artery to reveal the tumor vessels. Hepatic arteriogram is not the first choice because it is invasive. Nowadays, it is more often used as a treatment, as we usually talk about interventional therapy, which is performed through the hepatic artery foci, and the anti-cancer drugs are directly injected into the tumor vessels through the catheter to achieve the therapeutic effect.