Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC)

Threestrikes

My CTC number has increased, which is bad news. I would be interested in hearing others' CTC numbers. How high did yours go? What was the value at the point of new mets? I am trying to figure out how bad is bad, but all of the research thus far is based only on dichotomous pass/fail groups (<5 versus >=5).

RosesToeses

Sorry about you latest numbers, it can be so stressful!

My understanding is that the numbers themselves aren't that meaningful but it's about how they relate to your own prior numbers.  Some people's cancers will give off a lot of tumor marker proteins and some less, and of course some none at all.  You may have much higher numbers than someone else with the same amount of cancer if your individual cancer gives off more.

Hope that helps!