Blood tests

Veeder14

Are there blood tests that can identify whether the cancer has spread before you have any treatment or surgery? It seems like that would be good to know before surgery. Also, wondering if the lymph nodes can be tested in advance of surgery. With Melanoma, I had to wait for them to be removed during the surgery and then biopsied.

dtad

Hi there. No unfortunately there are no blood tests to completely rule out metastasis. There may be some indication, like elevated liver enzymes but it would not be conclusive. They can do sentinel node biopsy before surgery but I would not recommend it. Good luck and keep us posted.

grrifff

tumor markers CA15-3 and CA27-29 can be used. Are they conclusive? No but often times they are a strong indicator that somethings off.

Yaelle

Hi Veeder,

I don't think blood tests can be a guarantee. I had some lymph nodes extracted (including sentinel) and biopsied upfront, during the surgery where they installed the port. But often doctors are reluctant to do so as it requires a lot of coordination (2 different surgeons during the same intervention). Moreover, these biopsies seem to be less accurate than those performed on the tumor itself. In my case, node biopsy showed a grade 2, but during tumor biopsy it appeared to be grade 3.

I know it's hard to wait without knowing and send you thousands of hugs to cover the period till your surgery.

Georgia1

Good morning Veeder. Often a good surgeon has a strong sense of lymph node involvement from physical exam, but only a SNB is definitive. I do not recommend doing that in advance. Your surgeon might also order an MRI or PET scan if she's worried about spread. I'm not aware of a reliable blood test.

Veeder14

HI Georgia1,

That's what I figured. I did just have a whole body PET/ct scan 3 weeks ago to check on the Melanoma. It was all ok, nothing systemic on it. I'm just hoping I can get surgery before it spreads if it does. It's already outside of the Lobule but not sure how much and for how long would indicate spread.