As people’s awareness of cancer prevention increases, more and more people are taking the initiative to have medical checkups, especially cancer prevention checkups. Most people do not know how to choose the medical checkup items. Some people think that the more money they spend, the better, and the more comprehensive the program, the better. So, what are the common misconceptions of medical examiners in cancer prevention checkups? 1. PET-CT examination is the best This idea is incorrect; PET-CT includes both structural and functional examination, and has obvious advantages over general ultrasound and CT examination. However, PET-CT is not a panacea. In terms of cancer screening, PET-CT examination is not as sensitive as gastroscopy, colonoscopy and cervical cytology TCT in early gastric, intestinal and cervical cancers, and cannot replace the above three examination methods. Moreover, PET-CT examination has certain radiation to human body and is not suitable for frequent repeated examinations, so it cannot be used routinely as a method of cancer prevention physical examination. 2.I won’t get cancer if there is no abnormal finding after cancer checkup This idea is also incorrect. First of all, general medical checkup programs or packages include limited items of medical checkups, which do not include the examination of all organs of the whole body. If there is no abnormality in the items that have been examined, it does not mean that there is no abnormality in the items that have not been examined. Stomach cancer and intestinal cancer are the top five common malignant tumors in China. Due to the fact that gastroscopy and colonoscopy can only be performed after virology results are available, appointments are required before the examination, and the examination is painful, these two examinations are not included in the general physical examination program. Therefore, even if the physical examination results do not show any abnormalities, the examinee may still have the possibility of stomach and intestinal cancer. Secondly, current cancer prevention physical examinations are generally conducted for several common cancers, and some examination methods have limited sensitivity and cannot detect all early cancers, such as chest X-ray may miss some lung cancers, and ultrasound may miss early liver cancers under the influence of fatty liver, etc. Again, some tumors grow fast and are still small at the time of physical examination and cannot be detected by the existing clinical examination means, and only after a few months, they grow rapidly to be detected. Therefore, even if a physical examination is conducted and there are uncomfortable symptoms or where something has grown, it is necessary to go to the hospital to avoid delaying the diagnosis of the disease. 3.Checking blood can diagnose cancer Some peripheral tumor markers such as AFP for liver cancer and PSA for prostate cancer have certain diagnostic significance, while other common cancers lack a clear correspondence with blood tumor markers. Some tumor patients show elevated blood tumor markers at the time of diagnosis, but some other patients do not have elevated tumor markers even at the advanced stage of tumor, therefore, blood tumor markers alone cannot be used to diagnose cancer. Blood tumor marker test needs to be combined with doctors’ clinical examination and imaging examination such as ultrasound and CT for early diagnosis of cancer. 4. Elevated blood tumor markers found in physical examination means cancer At present, more and more physical examination centers include blood tumor marker examination in the physical examination program, so many people with elevated tumor markers are found. This often causes panic among the medical examiners and their families. In fact, most people with mildly elevated peripheral blood tumor markers are not tumor patients after a comprehensive clinical examination. However, if elevated blood tumor markers are found during the physical examination, it is still necessary to conduct comprehensive clinical examination and long-term review and follow-up to discover possible underlying diseases. 5.One physical examination can guarantee that you will not get cancer in several years. The results of physical examination can reflect the condition of human body within a certain period of time. Hematology test results change frequently, and sometimes the test results are different within a day. Imaging test results also have a certain “expiration date”. The general population is examined once a year, and even if the examination is done annually, it is possible that cancer may be diagnosed in the middle of two examinations. Therefore, if you have an annual checkup and no abnormalities are found in the checkup, you should seek medical consultation if you feel uncomfortable or have abnormal physical signs. For some high-risk groups such as those with multiple malignant tumors in the family or those with hepatitis B virus (significantly higher risk of liver cancer), the time interval between medical checkups should be shortened to once every six months. 6.Cancer can be prevented by medical checkups Some medical checkups ask me if I can’t get cancer in the future if I have cancer checkups. This is not true. The difference between cancer checkups and general checkups is that they not only check whether you have cancer now, but also investigate and check whether you have any risk factors for cancer, such as whether you have a history of smoking, family history of tumor, viral infection, etc. In the medical checkup report, there is also some information about weight, weight, weight, weight, weight, weight, weight, weight. The medical examination report also reminds of some unhealthy or unfavorable factors and indicators such as overweight, high blood fat, fatty liver, etc. Therefore, if the medical examinee can improve some risk factors for cancer through improving lifestyle after the medical examination, the cancer prevention medical examination can achieve certain preventive effects. For the general population, cancer prevention medical checkups need to be conducted annually, and one should not skip the checkup if no abnormality is found in one checkup. Cancer prevention and early diagnosis require long-term attention, and there is no shortcut to cancer prevention and early diagnosis.