No matter men or women, when you are 40 years old, don't miss this item in the physical examination! Otherwise, you may not even know you have cancer.
It is said that "cancer" is a silent killer, but this "silence" is limited to the early stage of cancer.
Clinically, many patients with early stage cancer have relatively mild symptoms, or even no abnormalities. However, in the middle and late stages of cancer, patients will have huge cancer pain and other complications. Therefore, everyone talks about the discoloration of cancer. .
Especially people after the age of 40 are more prone to cancer due to weakened immunity and years of physical damage. Under normal circumstances, the routine physical examination items are too single, and it is difficult to screen out the cancer hidden in the internal organs!
The "tumor marker" screening introduced in recent years has brought hope to early cancer detection.
However, when we get the report card and find that one or several tumor markers are elevated, we are often shocked and wonder if this may be a tumor?
What are "Tumor Markers"?
The so-called tumor markers are a class of substances synthesized and released by cancer cells themselves, or the body responds to cancer cells, thereby increasing the level of substances. Its components mainly include two types of proteins and sugars. They are clinically called tumor markers. It is a tumor marker, also referred to as TM!
TM exists in human cells, tissues, blood, and body fluids, and can be examined clinically through biochemical, immunological, and other methods.
At present, the common tumor marker examinations mainly include the following categories:
- Carcinoembryonic antigen
Carcinoembryonic antigen is clinically called CEA, which is a glycoprotein present in the serum of patients with colon cancer. This component can also be detected in the serum of fetuses of 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, etc., generally around 50-70%.
- Glycosyl antigen CA19-9
Glycosyl antigen CA19-9, the value will be significantly increased in patients with gallbladder cancer, and it is also used as a diagnostic and differential indicator clinically.
In addition, patients with liver cancer, gastric cancer, and esophageal cancer may also have elevated CA19-9. However, in addition to cancer, certain gastrointestinal inflammations also have varying degrees of elevated CA19-9, but generally it is less than twice the normal value.
- Alpha-fetoprotein
Alpha-fetoprotein is the earliest clinically discovered tumor marker and 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, which is synthesized by the liver of the fetus.
After entering the adult stage, liver cells lose the ability to synthesize this protein. However, when the function of liver cells is abnormal, especially after the occurrence of primary liver cancer, a significant increase in the value of alpha-fetoprotein can be seen in the serum.
Abnormal tumor markers do not mean that it is 100% cancer!
Because clinically, tumor markers are mainly used for auxiliary diagnosis of tumors, and the diagnosis cannot be made based on this data alone. Moreover, it is not advocated clinically to include tumor markers in the scope of census, which is mainly used for screening of high-risk groups!
People over the age of 40 and people with a family history of cancer are all high-risk groups for tumors. Therefore, screening for tumor markers can be performed during the physical examination.
If it is found that the data has increased and is not within the normal range, you should seek medical advice in time and start the next step of examination to avoid cancer without knowing it.