How Do We Diagnose Cancer?

How Do We Diagnose Cancer? How Can I Know That I Have Cancer?
Medical Tutors Limited
August 29, 2019

02:47 PM

Summary
How Do We Diagnose Cancer?

Cancer diagnosis and treatment at the earlier stages often provides the best chance of the patient being cured. Diagnosing cancer can be done through the following approaches:

  1. Screening Tests

Screening means checking your body for cancer before you have symptoms. Getting screening tests regularly may find breast, cervical, and colorectal (colon) cancers early, when treatment is likely to work best. People with family or genetic history of cancer need to talk with their doctor about when and how often they should be screened. Depending on personal health history, family health history, or screening results, doctor may recommend a different screening schedule.

Examples of screening test includes: mammogram for breast cancers; colonoscopy for colorectal cancers; The HPV (Human Papillomavirus) test for cervical cancers; computerized tomography (CT) scan for lung cancers; and Pap test for prostate cancer. You can read more details on our previous article [how to prevent cancer] for more details.

  1. Physical Signs and Symptoms

A sign is a signal that can be seen by someone else – maybe a loved one, or a doctor, nurse, or other health care professional. For example, fever, fast breathing, and abnormal lung sounds heard through a stethoscope may be signs of pneumonia. A symptom is a signal that’s felt or noticed by the person who has it, but may not be easily seen by anyone else. For example, weakness, aching, and feeling short of breath may be symptoms of pneumonia.

Cancer can cause many symptoms, the signs and symptoms will depend on where the cancer is, how big it is, and how much it affects the organs or tissues. If a cancer has spread (metastasized), signs or symptoms may appear in different parts of the body.

  1. Breast Cancer: The most common symptom of breast cancer is a new lump or mass. A painless, hard mass that has irregular edges is more likely to be cancer, but breast cancers can be tender, soft, or rounded. They can even be painful. Other possible symptoms of breast cancer include:
  • Swelling of all or part of a breast (even if no distinct lump is felt)
  • Skin irritation or dimpling (sometimes looking like an orange peel)
  • Breast or nipple pain
  • Nipple retraction (turning inward)
  • Redness or thickening of the nipple or breast skin
  • Nipple discharge (other than breast milk)
  1. Prostate Cancer: Prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in men. Usually prostate cancer grows slowly and is initially confined to the prostate gland, where it may not cause serious harm and thus may cause no signs and symptoms in its early stages. Yet when it gets to a more advanced stage, it can cause the following symptoms
  • Frequent urination
  • Weak or interrupted urine flow or the need to strain to empty the bladder
  • The urge to urinate frequently at night
  • Blood in the urine
  • Blood in the seminal fluid
  • New onset of erectile dysfunction
  • Pain or burning during urination, which is much less common
  • Discomfort or pain when sitting, caused by an enlarged prostate
  1. Cervical Cancer: Most women do not have any signs or symptoms of a pre-cancer. In many women with early-stage cervical cancer, symptoms do typically appear. In women with advanced and metastatic cancers, the symptoms may be more severe depending on the tissues and organs to which the disease has spread. Any of the following could be signs or symptoms of cervical cancer:
  • Blood spots or light bleeding between or following periods
  • Menstrual bleeding that is longer and heavier than usual
  • Bleeding after intercourse, douching, or a pelvic examination
  • Increased vaginal discharge
  • Pain during sexual intercourse
  • Bleeding after menopause
  • Unexplained, persistent pelvic and/or back pain
  1. Lung Cancer: Most lung cancers do not cause any symptoms until they have spread, but some people with early lung cancer do have symptoms. The most common symptoms of lung cancer are:
  • A cough that does not go away or gets worse
  • Coughing up blood or rust-colored sputum (spit or phlegm)
  • Chest pain that is often worse with deep breathing, coughing, or laughing
  • Weight loss and loss of appetite
  • Shortness of breath
  • Feeling tired or weak
  • Infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia that don’t go away or keep coming back
  1. Cancer of Colon: Many of the symptoms of colorectal cancer can also be caused by something that isn’t cancer, such as infection, hemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome, or inflammatory bowel disease. In many cases, people who have these symptoms do not have cancer. Still, if these problems persist, it is a sign that you should go to the doctor so the cause can be found and treated, if needed:
  • A change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation, or narrowing of the stool, that lasts for more than a few days
  • A feeling that you need to have a bowel movement that is not relieved by doing so
  • Rectal bleeding
  • Dark stools, or blood in the stool
  • Cramping or abdominal (belly) pain
  • Weakness and fatigue
  • Unintended weight loss
  1. Confirmatory Test
  2. Breast Cancer: A biopsy is the only definitive way to make a diagnosis of breast cancer. Biopsy samples are sent to a laboratory for analysis where experts determine whether the cells are cancerous. A biopsy sample is also analyzed to determine the type of cells involved in the breast cancer, the aggressiveness (grade) of the cancer, and whether the cancer cells have hormone receptors or other receptors that may influence your treatment options.
  3. Prostate Cancer: Two initial tests are commonly used to look for prostate cancer – a digital rectal exam and the blood test used to detect prostate-specific antigen (PSA). But the diagnosis can only be confirmed by a biopsy.
  4. Cervical Cancer: Same as prostate cancer, two test can be used to confirm cervical cancer i.e. Pap test and HPV test.
  5. Lung Cancer: When lung cancer signs and symptoms surfaces, diagnosis which include imaging tests, sputum cytology and biopsy are the best confirmatory test which can be used by doctors to detect lung cancers.

 

[Next Week: How is Cancer Treated?]

Latest News