Liver Cancer Diagnosis - Tests

Screening and Early Liver Cancer Diagnosis

The American Cancer Society website states that fewer than fifty percent of people over age 50 in the USA have had appropriate screening for colon or rectal cancer or polyps. Several methods are available for screening the colon and rectum. Several different societies have recommended screening methods. The available ways to screen for polyps or cancers of the colon and rectum include FOBT (fecal occult blood tests), digital rectal exam, sigmoidoscopy, barium enema, virtual colonoscopy, and colonoscopy. My personal opinion on this is a strong one. Every person over the age of 45 or 50 should have total evaluation of the colon and rectum every 5 to 7 years. This can be by flexible sigmoidoscopy and BE or by virtual colonoscopy or by colonoscopy. It really doesn’t matter which technique is used as long as polyps or masses that are discovered are then removed by colonoscopy. The biggest problem here is establishing the expectation for patients and their primary physicians to get one or another method of total colon screening done.

Few screening programs exist in the United States for hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer). The patients known to have increased risk are those with some form of hepatitis and/or cirrhosis. I believe that appropriate screening and diagnosis of these patients with alpha feto-protein blood levels and with ultrasound of the liver would be of significant benefit. Unfortunately, sonography of the liver has a real miss rate and I think that periodic CT scans are harder to defend on a cost/benefit ratio. Still we certainly could pick up at least some HCC’s at an earlier, more curable stage if screening programs were in existence.

Contact my office today to find out more about liver cancer diagnosis and the tests that can be run to discover liver cancer early on.