Many people use the detection of tumor marker to determine their probability of cancer. Once they see the increase in tumor marker, they will feel very scared.
In fact, this is not the case. Increased tumor markers do not necessarily lead to cancer. Tumor markers are a method used to reflect tumor development and monitor tumor severity.
Generally, tumor markers are present in the body fluids, tissues and excrements of tumor patients and can be detected by immune, biological or chemical methods.
As people's awareness of cancer increases, people are very concerned about whether tumor markers are increased or not.
In recent years, tumor marker detection has been widely promoted, and the general cost ranges from several dozen to 100 yuan, which is not particularly high.
However, since many people lack understanding of tumor markers, it is easy to misunderstand that this is the main method to judge cancer, but in fact this can only be used as an auxiliary method of judgment.
Therefore, when tumor markers are elevated, it may be related to tumors, but it may also be caused by physiological, physical inflammation, chronic diseases, etc.
Theoretically, when the tumor is relatively small, the patient will basically not have any discomfort symptoms, and even if the imaging examination is performed, the disease cannot be detected.
As mentioned earlier, an elevated tumor marker of does not mean a tumor, and a low tumor marker does not mean a tumor without .
Clinically, each tumor marker corresponds to one or more cancers. Under normal circumstances, the tumor marker is slightly elevated, without physical discomfort, and the changes in the tumor marker after multiple examinations are very small, basically there is no big problem.
However, if the tumor marker increases significantly, repeat the test more than three times.
The tumor marker continues to increase or the tumor marker increases more, the body will have discomfort symptoms. It is necessary to further check at this time to understand the specific situation clearly, especially the following tumor markers should be paid more attention.
first, carcinoembryonic antigen
It is a broad spectrum non-organ-specific tumor-related antigen. If you excrete too much CEA, you may suffer from lung cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer , etc.
However, serum CEAs in patients with smokers, pregnant mothers, cardiovascular disease and diabetes will also increase.
Second, carbohydrate antigen
mainly includes CA19-9, CA125, CA15-3, etc., among which CA19-9 is used to judge digestive tract tumors, such as pancreatic cancer, cholangiocarcinoma , gallbladder cancer , gallbladder cancer , etc.
In addition, digestive system diseases such as pancreatitis and jaundice will also cause CA19-9 to increase . CA125 is used to judge ovarian cancer, and CA15-3 is used to judge breast cancer .
Third, gastric cancer -related antigen
is of great significance to judging gastric cancer. The accuracy rate of can reach 28-80% . If CA19-9 and CEA are combined, the probability of judging gastric cancer is as high as more than 70%.
In addition, there is a significant correlation between CA72-4 level and gastric cancer stage. gastric cancer stage generally increases ⅲ-ⅳ gastric cancer . The CA72-4 positive rate of patients with metastases is significantly higher than that of patients with gastric cancer without metastases.
4, ferritin
acute leukemia , Hodgkin's disease, lung cancer, colon cancer , liver cancer and prostate cancer , etc., all need to be judged through ferritin detection.
Clinically, ferritin content in 76% of patients with liver metastasis is higher than 400μG/L. When the AFP value of liver cancer patients is low, ferritin value can be supplemented to improve the diagnosis rate.
However, the increase in ferritin is also related to pigment sedation, inflammation and hepatitis, which may be caused by cell necrosis, blockage of erythrocyte formation or increased tumor tissue.
Fifth, prostate-specific antigen
PSA is a semen-specific protein composed of prostate epithelial cells. It is an important marker for the occurrence and prognosis of prostate cancer and prostatitis.
In clinical practice, the normal reference value of serum PSA is 4ng/ml. If the numerical value is abnormal, it is suspected to be prostate cancer. 10NG/ml should be highly suspected to be cancer .
In short, if the tumor marker is found to be elevated during the physical examination, don’t worry too much. You need to actively go to the hospital for examination, which will be more conducive to understanding the actual reasons.
After all, benign tumors and other diseases may detect tumor markers. During this period, you must follow the doctor's arrangements to further judge the elevation of tumor markers, which is of great significance to determining the symptomatic treatment plan later.
