Objective To study and analyze the clinical diagnostic value of folate receptor-positive circulating tumor cells for early lung cancer.Methods A total of 100 patients with suspected lung cancer on chest CT imaging treated in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery of the Affiliated Hospital of Putian University from September 2019 to December 2021 were selected as the research objects.The blood samples of 100 patients were collected,operated in the anterior elbow vein and stored at a temperature of 4℃,and the blood samples were tested for folate receptor positive circulating tumor cells within 24 h.Results Combined with the pathological diagnosis results of the patients,there were 75 patients with early stage lung cancer and 25 patients with benign lung lesions,the quantity of folate receptor-positive tumor cells in patients with early lung cancer was higher than that in patients with benign lung disease,the difference was statistically significant (P＜0.05).Taking postoperative pathological results as the gold standard for diagnosing lung cancer,Kappa consistency test showed that folate receptor positive circulating tumor had a certain accuracy in the diagnosis of early lung cancer(Kappa=0.683,P＜0.05).Folate receptor positive circulating tumor cells were used as diagnostic indicators for lung cancer,the area under the ROC curve was 0.837 (95%CI=0.648-1.000),the optimal cut-off value was 8.7 FU/3 ml,the sensitivity was 87.7%,and the specificity was 76.9%.Conclusion The detection of folate receptor-positive circulating tumor cells has good diagnostic performance in the diagnosis of early lung cancer.