Diagnosis
Nooreldeen and Bach, (2021), state that the diagnosis of lung cancer is a multi-step process, it begins with the physical exam such as listening to the heart and lungs. Then the process proceeds with blood tests or chest X-rays, however, the X-rays are not good enough as tumours are too small to be seen by X-rays and are often blocked by structures such as ribs. The diagnosis can be progressed by imaging tests such as CT scans and then biopsies. PET/CT tells whether the cancer has spread;
Biopsies
Casagrande et al. (2023) state that several processes can provide closer insights into the tumour, here the sample of fluid or tissue is taken, which is studied under the microscope, where samples are to be tested for genetic changes, the kind of biopsies done include
- needle biopsies where the sample is collected through a needle for testing.
- Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS), Bronchoscopy, and thoracoscopy where parts of the lungs are observed and tissue samples are taken.
- Thoracentesis, where fluid samples around the lungs are taken for testing
- Endobronchial or endoscopic esophageal ultrasounds are done for biopsy of lymph nodes
- In mediastinoscopy, the samples are taken from areas between the lungs called mediastinum.
Molecular tests
In molecular tests, the tissue samples are tested for gene changes where special drugs target the genes, the genes that change and are targeted are KRAS, MET, HER2, NTRK, EGFR, ALK, ROS1, BRAF, RET (Siddiqui et al., 2023).
