Apart from physical examination of nose and throat, lymph nodes in the body, breasts in women, abdominal examination, pelvic examination, and rectal examination, the next level of the cancer detection will go to blood tests to detect cancer. Blood tests to detect cancer is purely a laboratory process. To diagnose cancer, two types of blood tests are done. They are nonspecific blood tests and specifif blood tests. We will see about one by one now. A nonspecific blood test identifies any abnormality in the blood, but will not detect exactly what it is. A specific blood test are done to detect specific types of cancers. Blood is checked whether it gives growth to some specific organs to detect some cancers to conclude the diagnosis. Leukemia is detected by doing blood test from the finger, as it gives a result of abnormal growth of white blood cells. Bone marrow is tested to find out a cancer called multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma is formed when plasma cells are getting malignant.
Basically in a nonspecific blood tests to detect cancer, the blood cell count is calculated and the result will explain whether the patient is anemic or not. As anemia is also a symptom of having cancer, even though there are many reasons a patient to be anemic, the physician will check the history of bleeding if any in the patient otherwise. Sometimes a tumor in the colon may be the reason for the bleeding and the presence of cancer will be confirmed by x-rays. Liver function tests, shortly termed as LFTs are done to find any abnormalities in the liver. Liver may be affected for many reasons, such inflammation of the liver called as hepatitis, or any presence of gallstones, toxicity of drugs or due to the presence of tumor in it. A complete panel test is done to analyze any abnormalities, such as blood counts, metabolism test to check the levels of minerals, liver function tests, kidney function tests, and thyroid function tests (TFTs).
The above-mentioned tests will confirm the presence of cancer, but cannot specify which cancer correctly by these tests. Now we will see about nonspecific blood tests now. Alkaline phosphatase level test is done and alkaline phosphatase level will be in elevated condition if the patient is with any liver disease. SGOT or SGPT level will be in an elevated condition if the liver is damaged. If the bile is obstructed in the liver, bilirubin level will be in the elevated test. LDH level is elevated in many abnormal conditions, but this is also an indicator of cancer. If the patient has gout, his uric acid level will be in the elevated state in his blood. Elevated uric acid level is also an indicator of cancer in the blood and lymph nodes. Uric acid level will also be elevated after any cancer treatment. Any patient with kidney disease will have elevated creatinine and BUN levels in the blood. Calcium level in the blood will also be in an elevated state if the patient has cancer and it is spread to the bone.
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