Can routine physical examination detect cancer

The answer is "some of it can, but it cannot detect all cancers." Don't expect to "clear out" all cancers in your body with just one routine physical examination, but don't think that routine physical examinations are completely useless. Both of these extreme ideas are wrong. I have been working in the health management center of a tertiary hospital for nearly 6 years, and I have seen many patients who were diagnosed with early cancer through routine physical examinations. The one who impressed me the most was a 50-year-old sister last year. The routine physical examination organized by the unit every year included cervical TCT screening. Last year, atypical squamous cell lesions were detected, and further biopsy was performed to confirm that it was cervical cancer in situ. She was completely cured with only a conization operation, and she did not even need chemotherapy. Now she comes back for review every year and everything is fine.

Of course, we have encountered many cases that everyone said were "missed" by routine physical examinations. Last month, there was a 39-year-old man. All routine physical examinations showed normal. He was admitted to the hospital for jaundice and was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer less than 3 months ago. His family came back to find him and said that our physical examination center was irresponsible. In fact, it was really unfair. I looked through his physical examination report at that time, and the abdominal B-ultrasound page clearly stated, "Abdominal distension is obvious, and the pancreas is not clearly visible. It is recommended to further CT examination if necessary." He did not take it seriously and did not follow up. In addition, the resolution of conventional abdominal B-ultrasound is limited, and the pancreas is located deep and hidden behind the gastrointestinal tract. Pancreatic cancer lesions smaller than 2 cm are difficult to detect through B-ultrasound. This is a natural limitation of routine physical examination items, not an operational error.

Speaking of this, you may also have discovered that many people have misunderstood the positioning of routine physical examinations. To put it bluntly, it is more like the "basic security examination" we do for the body. It checks for common problems that may occur in everyone and does not customize items for a certain person's high-risk factors. This is why everyone checks it now. The core reason why cancer efficiency is highly controversial: On the one hand, there are people who happen to have cancers that can be covered by conventional programs and save a life, so they boast about routine physical examinations; on the other hand, there are people who happen to have cancers that cannot be detected by conventional programs, and they insist that routine physical examinations are all IQ taxes. Both views are quite one-sided.

The built-in items in routine physical examinations can actually cover the early screening signals of many high-risk cancers: for example, chest X-ray can detect some early-stage lung cancers, thyroid B-ultrasound can screen out most thyroid cancers, breast palpation plus B-ultrasound can detect early breast lesions, fecal occult blood test can indicate the possibility of digestive tract cancer, and cervical TCT is the core item for early screening of cervical cancer. These items are inexpensive and universal, and can already help ordinary people prevent most early cancers. If you want to further improve the accuracy of cancer detection, you don’t need to blindly buy a high-end cancer prevention package worth tens of thousands of dollars. You can just add a few targeted items based on your regular physical examination based on your own situation: for example, a 20-year-old smoker , replace ordinary chest X-rays with low-dose spiral CT, add a gastroscopy if you have a family history of gastric cancer and suffer from bloating and pain, and get a mammogram every year if a female relative in the family has breast cancer. It only costs a few hundred yuan, and the efficiency of cancer detection can be doubled several times.

I always tell people who come for physical examinations not to think too much about routine physical examinations, and don’t trample them to nothing. It is a health sentinel guarding the first line of defense. It can detect most conspicuous abnormalities. If you really want to accurately demine a few high-risk situations, it is enough to equip it with a targeted "customized magnifying glass".