Lung adenocarcinoma is difficult to detect in the early stage and can be diagnosed by computerized tomography.

"Hat singer" Feng Feifei died of lung adenocarcinoma in 2009 for the same reason as her husband Zhao Hongqi. The incident was sudden, and people lamented that "lung adenocarcinoma can't be checked in advance?" In fact, the early symptoms of lung adenocarcinoma are not obvious, which is difficult for ordinary people to detect. It was not diagnosed until the late stage of the disease caused serious discomfort. However, with the current technology, lung lesions can still be found by advanced computed tomography or positron emission tomography (PET-CT), and then chemotherapy, targeted drug therapy or radiotherapy can be given.

The initial symptoms of lung adenocarcinoma are not obvious, but the size and location of the tumor can still be displayed by computerized tomography. (Image source/website of Children's General Hospital) Cai Qinghong, director of the Chest Department of Children's General Hospital, said that lung adenocarcinoma is a kind of lung cancer and belongs to non-small cell cancer, accounting for about 40% of lung cancer. It is easy to happen among women and non-smokers. The initial symptoms are not obvious, and the diagnosis is usually late.

Lung adenocarcinoma tumors often appear in the periphery of the lung. In the early days, it was difficult to prevent them effectively because they could not be detected by chest X-ray. Therefore, it is easy to spread rapidly from a small primary tumor in just a few months. In computed tomography, hundreds of white spots of different sizes can be found on both sides of the lung. Now, tumors larger than 0.5 cm can be found by more precise computerized tomography or positron emission tomography, and the tumors can be clearly located through 3D images to distinguish whether they are benign or malignant, which provides reference for further diagnosis and treatment.

Dr. Cai Qinghong said that if the lung adenocarcinoma tumor has not spread to the surrounding organs in the early stage, the patient's specimen can be further sent to the gene center for genetic examination of whether the epithelial growth factor receptor has mutated. If there is a good mutation, it can be treated with targeted drugs, which can prolong the life of 1 year on average. Unless there is a specific gene mutation, chemotherapy is the main method.

In addition, in the surgical treatment, the traditional surgical resection of malignant tumors is prone to poor cardiopulmonary function and the risk of anesthesia. Therefore, under the professional diagnosis of doctors, patients can also use advanced computer knife radiation surgery, so that high-energy rays can accurately target tumor sites, kill cancer cells, avoid normal cells, and minimize the damage to normal tissues.