Early diagnosis of cancer is crucial for selecting the right treatments for a patient. At Oncare, we offer different types of diagnostic tests at affordable prices, which helps to detect any type of cancer in suspected patients. We offer a wide range of tests to diagnose cancer, and later our experienced oncologist team will guide and provide effective cancer treatment options.
Here’s our major diagnostic services, including:
Physical Exams and Medical History
- Physical Exam: An oncologist might examine the patient’s body to analyze any recent changes or signs of cancer, including the presence of lumps, changes in the skin, swelling, or abnormal growths in the body.
- Medical history of a patient: A cancer specialist usually asks about any recent symptoms in the body. Additionally, the doctor also inquires about details such as the patient's family history of cancer, lifestyle choices, and previous health concerns.
Lab Tests
Lab tests are considered as one of the crucial steps in diagnosing cancer in a suspected patient. It provides valuable information about the patient’s general health and the presence of any abnormal substances or growths in the body that could indicate the presence of cancer in patients.
Blood Tests:
- Complete Blood Count (CBC): Performing these tests helps to measure the levels of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Some types of abnormal results can indicate the signs of cancer, such as leukemia.
- Liver Function Test (LFT): Performing these types of tests helps to identify the levels of liver enzymes and other toxic substances and helps to evaluate the liver’s functioning.
- Kidney Function Test (KFT): Performing these tests helps to evaluate kidney health while measuring the level of waste products such as creatinine and urea in the blood. Kidney dysfunctions made due to cancer or its treatments can be detected through KFT tests.
Tumor markers: There are specific proteins or other substances in the blood that can indicate the signs of cancer.
Including:
- PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen): An increased level of PSA might indicate the signs of prostate cancer.
- CA- 125: A high level of proteins called CA 125 indicates the chance of ovarian cancer.
- CEA (Carcinoembryonic Antigen): It often indicates an increased level of colorectal, lung and other cancers.
Urine Tests:
Performing these tests helps to analyze urine substances, which often indicate the signs of cancer, including the presence of abnormal proteins and cells. For example, a urine cytology test can detect bladder cancer.
Genetic tests:
These tests can help to identify any type of inherited mutations that might increase the risk of developing different cancers including breast and ovarian cancer due to BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations.
Imaging Tests
Performing imaging tests can create the internal images of the body, which further helps the doctors to locate and assess the size of the tumors. Performing different types of imaging tests can offer different aspects of the test details.
- X-rays: Performing the traditional imaging scans helps to detect tumors, bone cancers, and lung cancer by developing images inside from the body.
- CT Scan: A more informed form of X-ray provides the 3D images of the body. It helps to highlight the location, size, and shape of the tumors in organs including the liver, lungs, or pancreas.
- MRI: This uses powerful magnets and radio waves to create high-resolution images, and it is especially useful for detecting brain tumors, spinal cancers, and soft tissue cancers such as sarcoma.
- Ultrasound: These scans use sound waves to create images of internal organs. It’s mostly used to detect any signs of tumor in the liver, kidneys, or other soft tissues. It can also guide biopsies.
- PET Scan: These tests help to detect the cancerous cells in the patient by tracking the energy they're using. PET scans are generally helpful for identifying the cancer spread or staging in cancers such as breast cancer, lung cancer, and lymphoma.
Biopsy Procedures
A biopsy involves removing a sample of tissue from a suspected cancer patient to test. This is a standard medical procedure performed to confirm the presence of cancer in a person.
- Fine-Needle Aspiration (FNAC): A thin needle is inserted into the tumor to remove a small sample of cells. FNAC is less invasive, and it is commonly used in tumors in the breast, thyroid, or lymph nodes.
- Core Needle Biopsy: A large type of needle is used to take a tissue sample from the cells. This type of procedure provides a bigger sample than FNAC. This is typically used to treat breast, prostate, or liver tumors.
- Endoscopic Biopsy: An endoscope contains a thin tube with a camera, which is inserted through a body opening such as the mouth or rectum to collect some sample tissue from organs such as the lungs, colon, or bladder.
- Surgical Biopsy: In some cases, surgery might be required to remove part of a tumor for a more extensive examination. This is usually performed when the biopsy methods are not feasible.
Genetic Testing and Molecular Diagnostics
These tests watch out for any changes happening in the genes, proteins, or other molecules. It often helps to understand how cancer behaves or appears in the tests.
- Genetic tests: These tests can identify any inherited mutations that increase the risk of several cancers.
For example:
- BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene tests are performed to confirm breast and ovarian cancer.
- Lynch syndrome tests are used for colorectal and endometrial cancers.
- Molecular diagnostics: These tests help to study the changes in the DNA or proteins in the cancer cells to identify the exact type of cancer and guide the treatment.
For example, the EGFR test helps to identify any types of mutations in lung cancer that may make the tumor responsive to targeted treatments such as EGFR inhibitors.
Pathology Reports
Here’s how you can prepare for your cancer treatment:
- After the lab test, the collected sample is often examined by a certified pathologist with the help of a microscope.
- The pathology report highlights the details of the type of cancer present in the sample.
- The report also showcases the cancer’s grade and how the abnormal cells appear, along with the cancer’s stage and its extent of spread in the body.
The report plays a crucial role in planning the next steps of treatment.
Follow-Up Tests
When a treatment begins in a patient, the need for follow-up test monitoring also increases. It also helps to detect any type of recurrence in the body or evaluate the effectiveness of the current treatment plans. Some of these tests can include imaging tests, lab tests, or any additional biopsies.
While blood tests are performed on patients repeatedly to identify any types of tumor markers in the patients. Imaging tests such as CT scans are used to check for any types of new growths in the patient's body.
Frequently Asked Questions
One of the common cancer tests are used to diagnose and start treatments including:
- Complete Blood Count (CBC) tests
- Biopsy
- Imaging tests
- CT scan
- MRI scan
A CT scan, also known as computed tomography, is a type of imaging test that uses X-rays to create more informed cross-sectional images of different images of the affected areas.
Meanwhile, a PET-CT scan is a positron emission tomography scan, a common type of medical imaging test that uses a radioactive tracer. This type of test helps to identify some metabolic or biochemical functions of tissues and organs in a clearer and more precise manner.
Biopsy is a medical procedure commonly used in cancer treatment. A biopsy is usually performed to collect a piece of tissue or sample of cells from the suspected patient.
Performing genetic tests helps to determine one or more genes to identify any type of hereditary cancer-related mutations in suspected cancer patients.
These may include:
- Single mutation
- Single gene mutation
- Panel tests