How is lung cancer diagnosed and staged?
Physicians use information revealed by symptoms as well as several other procedures in order to diagnose lung cancer. Common imaging techniques include chest X-rays, bronchoscopy (a thin tube with a camera on one end), CT scans, MRI scans, and PET scans. Physicians will also conduct a physical examination, a chest examination, and an analysis of blood in the sputum. All of these procedures are designed to detect where the tumor is located and what additional organs may be affected by it. Although the above diagnostic techniques provided important information, extracting cancer cells and looking at them under a microscope is the only absolute way to diagnose lung cancer. This procedure is called a biopsy. If the biopsy confirms lung cancer, a pathologist will determine whether it is non-small cell lung cancer or small cell lung cancer. After a diagnosis is made, an oncologist will determine the stage of the cancer by finding out how far the cancer has spread. The stage determines which
