If you have had several cancer patients in the family, or recently your condition is difficult to describe as satisfactory, and doctors can not determine the cause, it is reasonable to undergo an analysis on cancer cells in the body. With its help, it is possible to determine a possible area of ​​involvement of an oncological disease in order to conduct a more accurate diagnosis of this organ.
What analysis to hand over to cancer cells?
There are quite a few methods of diagnosing cancer:
- radiation (X-ray, radio-magnetic resonance, ultrasound);
- radioisotope;
- biopsy;
- endoscopy;
- lab tests.
To date, the most common pattern of analysis, this is a radiation study, on the basis of which the cells are taken from the tumor found in this way to assess their malignancy. Needless to say, this way you can detect cancer at the stage where the tumor is already large enough. In addition, not all types of oncology are characterized by differentiated clusters of cells, so many are not visually visible. This makes radiation analysis of cancer cells ineffective.
The analysis of blood on cancer cells refers to laboratory methods. Along with radioisotope diagnosis, it allows to identify the cancer at an early stage and determine the approximate location of the tumor. That is why many doctors give preference to these kinds of diagnosing the disease. Unfortunately, the radioisotope method in our country is not available to everyone, it is a new trend in medicine, and therefore is rare. You can conduct a blood test in any oncology unit.
How can I get a blood test for cancer cells?
In order to receive a referral for a blood test for the presence of cancer cells, you should contact the therapist to conduct a routine examination. If the family had cases of cancer of the same type, you can immediately go on a visit to a narrow-profile doctor - an endocrinologist, gastroenterologist, gynecologist. The choice of a specialist depends on the location of the primary tumor of your relatives, or the area that causes the greatest concern for you. Carcinophobia, of course, is an unpleasant disorder, but in this case it is wise to be vigilant in order to detect oncology as early as possible.
After you receive a referral for a blood test, indicating the necessary oncomarkers, in the laboratory, blood will be drawn from the vein in an amount sufficient to study the material for all indicators. The fact is that each type of blood has its own oncomarkers, so the blood you take from them is divided into many parts, each of which will be subjected to chemical reactions separately. The aim of the study was to detect a specific type of protein, which is a product of the growth of cancer cells. Here are the main oncomarkers:
- HE4 appears in the blood in ovarian cancer;
- PSA in prostate cancer;
- CA 72-3 for stomach cancer and lung cancer;
- CYFRA 21-1 allows to determine lung and bladder cancer already on 0,1,2 stage;
- CA 19-9 appears with oncology in the digestive organs - stomach, intestine, pancreas, liver;
- REA testifies to many types of oncology (colon and rectum, stomach, lungs, prostate, mammary glands, ovaries, uterus);
- B-2-MG appears with leukemia, leukemia , myeloma;
- CA-242 in the blood indicates cancer of the bladder, or kidney;
- ACE in the blood indicates liver cancer and metastases in this organ, can also appear in testicular and ovarian cancer, sometimes this figure increases with cirrhosis and hepatitis.
Analysis for the presence of cancer cells must necessarily be combined with other diagnostic methods. In addition, it should be carried out several times over a long period of time. The fact is that oncomarkers can be present in the blood of even a healthy person. Norm when analyzing blood for cancer cells is established for each case individually, given the dynamics of the number of cells in different periods.