My wife has to give blood for testing once a week to help the doctors determine how strong the chemo to put in her iv. Is there a specific test that shows if the tumor is shrinking? I know about the white and red cell count, but is there a "cancer" test? She has squamous cell of the lung, stage 2. No spreading of the cancer anywhere else, thank God.
2007-01-01 04:28:34 · 6 answers · asked by chillitroutman 1 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Cancer
The CA125 bloodtest measures the level of cancer cells in the body. Your wife's blood is also being tested to see that her white blood count is high enough for her to have treatment. A low WBC will just delay her next cycle of chemo a bit. This is very common and there are now shots that can be given to correct this. Her blood will also be checked for her level of red cells to determine whether she might be anemic. Again, there are treatments for this also. Speak to your wife's oncologist so that he can better explain about the tests and the CA125 , which are probably being done on a regular basis. The results of the CA125 take longer to come back so you may have to keep asking the oncologist.
2007-01-01 04:43:43 · answer #1 · answered by rhymer 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The are 2 poss. test both can be good observed.
The white cell count is to monitor your wife's susceptibility to infections. The red call count for anemia due to chemo.
The Sed Rate stuff is way to unspecific and so 19hundred.
CEA (carcinogenic antigen) - a cancer-specific immune system protein that is present in many adenocarcinomas, including lung adenocarcinoma. Increased preoperative levels of CEA usually suggest a poor prognosis. A CEA level greater than 50 may indicate advanced stage lung cancer and should discourage treatment by resection.
CYFRA21-1 (cytokeratin fragment 19) - a protein marker of lung cancer.
2007-01-05 00:39:57 · answer #2 · answered by bineusa 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There's also a scan that they can do to determine the amount of Cancer left in the body called a PET (Positron Emission Tomography ) Scan. It's used in combination with a CT Scan to determine the size of active cancer cells left in the body. Very similar to a CT scan, but they inject radioactive glucose into the blood stream which is rapidly absorbed by most cancer cells.
Check out petscaninfo.com
2007-01-04 02:25:00 · answer #3 · answered by Jennh83 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the blood tests are to keep track of her white and red cell count. the way they will eventually check to see if it shrinking is withx-rays but to really tell they will do cat scans. i'll pray for you.
2007-01-02 01:06:13 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
ESR test
2007-01-01 12:31:52 · answer #5 · answered by dumplingmuffin 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Ask the doctor ! Why are you asking us ?
2007-01-01 12:31:28 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋