No matter male or female, when you are 40 years old, don't miss this item during the physical examination! Otherwise, you may not know if you have cancer.
It is said that "cancer" is a silent killer, but this "silence" is limited to the early stages of cancer.
Clinically, many patients with early stage cancer have mild symptoms or even no abnormality. However, patients with advanced cancer will have huge cancer pain and other complications, so everyone talks about cancer discoloration. .
Especially after the age of 40, due to the weakened immunity of the body and the damage to the body over the years, it is more likely to develop cancer. Under normal circumstances, the routine physical examination items are too single, and it is difficult to screen out the cancers hidden in the internal organs!
The "tumor marker" screening launched in recent years has brought hope to early cancer detection.
However, when we get the report and find that one or several tumor markers are elevated, we are often shocked and wonder if this is a tumor?
What are "tumor markers"?
The so-called tumor markers are a class of substances that are synthesized and released by the cancer cells themselves, or the body reacts to the cancer cells, thereby increasing a class of substances. Its components mainly include proteins and carbohydrates. For tumor markers, also referred to as TM!
TM exists in human cells, tissue blood and body fluids, and can be examined clinically by means of biochemistry and immunology.
At present, the common tumor marker tests mainly include the following categories:
- Carcinoembryonic antigen
Carcinoembryonic antigen is clinically known as CEA, which is a glycoprotein present in the serum of patients with colon cancer. This component can also be detected in fetal serum at 3-6 months, so it is also called carcinoembryonic antigen. !
According to clinical statistics for many years, among the patients with primary colon cancer, the patients with elevated CEA reached 45-80%!
In addition to colon cancer, other cancer types can also have an increase in this indicator, such as pancreatic cancer, bile duct cancer, gastric cancer, and esophageal cancer, generally around 50-70%.
- Glycosyl antigen CA19-9
The value of glycosyl antigen CA19-9 will be significantly increased in patients with gallbladder cancer, and it is also used as a diagnosis and identification index in clinical practice.
In addition, patients with liver cancer, gastric cancer, and esophageal cancer may also have elevated CA19-9. However, in addition to cancer, some digestive tract inflammations also have different degrees of elevation of CA19-9, but they are generally below 2 times the normal value.
- Alpha-fetoprotein
Alpha-fetoprotein is the earliest tumor marker discovered clinically, and it is also one of the most common tumor markers. It can detect more than 80% of liver cancer and some genital tumors.
This includes ovarian cancer, which is high in women, and testicular cancer, which is common in men. In fact, alpha-fetoprotein itself is a special protein in the blood of the fetus, synthesized by the liver of the fetus.
In adulthood, liver cells lose the ability to synthesize this protein. However, when liver cell function is abnormal, especially after primary liver cancer, a significant increase in alpha-fetoprotein value can be seen in serum.
Abnormal tumor markers does not mean that it is 100% cancer!
Because clinically, tumor markers are mainly used for auxiliary diagnosis of tumors, and cannot be diagnosed based on this data alone. Moreover, the inclusion of tumor markers in the census is not recommended in clinical practice, which is mainly used for screening of high-risk groups!
People over 40 years old and people with a family history of cancer belong to the high-risk group of tumors, so during the process of physical examination, tumor marker screening can be carried out.
If it is found that the data is elevated and not within the normal range, you should seek medical advice in time and start the next inspection to avoid cancer without knowing it.