One of the most important aspects of effective treatment for cancer is to be able to detect the condition as early in its developmental phase as possible. A lung cancer test is the most widely used and most accurate way of detecting the presence of the condition. Lung cancer is a serious and fatal condition to suffer from and can seriously affect the quality of the life that you lead to some significant extent. How to test for lung cancer can be performed in a number of different methods. Previously, the medical fraternity would gather their lung cancer test results from chest radiographies and sputum examinations; however, these were not the most accurate of detection methods when it came to dealing with lung cancer.
Scientists have now started working on identifying a blood test for lung cancer as this would be the most easily accessible as well as most accurate method of diagnosing the condition. In the event that the diagnosis is being performed with the help of the chest radiography method, a biopsy will be performed to accurately substantiate the findings gathered from the radiography.
This chest x-ray procedure that is often used to gather the lung cancer test results may be performed in a clinic or a hospital and will involve a view from the back to the front of the chest as well as a side view of the area. These chest x-rays will highlight the presence of suspicious areas in the lungs, but are unable to determine if these regions are indeed cancerous. Another very useful method of lung cancer test diagnosis is CT scanning. These computerized tomography scans may be performed on the chest, abdomen as well as brain. The CT scans will be used in the detection of lung cancer in the event that the X-rays previously taken are not able to shed enough light on the condition. In some cases, some kind of intravenous material may be introduced into the body in order to help delineate the organs and their positions within the scan. Another technique known as low dose helical CT scan may also be used during the lung cancer test diagnosis and requires the use of a special type of CT scanner that is known to be rather useful in detecting presence of lung cancers in smokers. Smokers are known to be most prone to the development of lung cancer because of the ordeal that their lungs need to go through.