From time to time, we often encounter patients who accuse hospitals of prescribing tests indiscriminately in order to increase revenue, while the hospitals argue that these tests are necessary. There are endless debates on whether these tests are necessary or not. In clinical work, tumor patients often ask questions like “what tests should be done for tumor patients” or “why should these tests be done”. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce the examinations that tumor patients need to do here. Qualitative examination Qualitative examination refers to the examination method to confirm the diagnosis of cancer. At present, the only reliable method to confirm cancer diagnosis is pathological histological examination or cytological examination. Only when a patient is diagnosed with cancer, the physician starts to give anti-cancer treatment because the three treatments that are really effective in treating tumors (surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy) all have different degrees of toxic side effects, complications or after-effects. Some of these side effects, complications or sequelae are quite serious and significantly reduce the quality of patient’s survival or even cause death. Although some patients who have difficulty in taking biopsies for pathological examination and can be operated without pathological confirmation, a small amount of tumor tissue must be removed and sent to the pathology department for rapid frozen section examination before surgery to remove the tumor. Tumor marker examination Some tumors will secrete some substances into blood during their occurrence and development, and these substances can be detected through blood sampling. Tumor marker test can not be used as a basis for cancer diagnosis yet, but why should we do such test? The role of tumor marker test: 1. Tumor marker test can be used to screen for cancer. Tumor marker test is quick, simple, safe and low cost. If a tumor marker is detected, then in-depth examination will be conducted according to the tumor pointed by the marker until the tumor is confirmed. 2. Tumor markers can be used as indicators to predict patient’s prognosis and evaluate treatment effect. Some tumor markers can turn negative with the disappearance of tumor after treatment, and when the tumor recurs, the marker appears and rises again. Quantitative examination For tumor patients, quantitative examination mainly includes MRI, CT, PET-CT, whole body bone imaging, B-ultrasound, X-ray, endoscopy and so on. The main purpose of quantitative examination is to clarify the location of tumor and its invasion range, so as to make accurate clinical staging and provide a reliable basis for choosing the correct treatment method and formulating reasonable treatment plan. The quantitative examination is especially important for the selection of surgical treatment and the localization of the target area of radiation therapy, which is bound to cause the recurrence of tumor if the target area is not accurately localized. Treatment tolerance check Surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy have obvious toxic side effects or complications and sequelae to human body, not all patients can tolerate these treatments. Some chemotherapy drugs are toxic to the heart, some inhibit the hematopoietic function of bone marrow, and some damage the liver and kidney function, if chemotherapy is started without such examination, it is very easy to have medical accidents and even threaten the life of patients.