How can blood work be normal if I have cancer?

cowgal

I had my yearly check up with my oncologist several weeks ago and he did blood work because last year I told him that a cancer survivor's worst fear is that the cancer would come back and it would not get caught right away. They stopped doing blood work every year once I was 5 years out from cancer. He said next year (which was this year), he would have me do blood work before my visit. I had my mammogram and then had my yearly visit. My oncologist said that everything was normal, including the blood work. I told him that I had this area on my clavicle that I thought was related to my lymphedema on my mastectomy side. He looked at it and said that just to be sure, he wanted me to get further testing. Long story short, I had to have a CT guided biopsy and just got the results that it is breast cancer and he has scheduled me to get a full body scan to see if the cancer has spread anywhere else. Just wondering how my blood work can be normal if I have cancer?

MelissaDallas

Because as a general rule you would probably have to have advanced cancer to affect your "general" lab work, such as liver enzymes for liver mets or calcium changes for bone mets. Even tumor markers are really unreliable for a lot of people.

LoriCA

cowgirl I'm so sorry that it seems that your cancer has metastasized. Routine bloodwork such as the CBC and CMP I have done every 3 weeks is not a reliable indication of cancer. I had extensive mets at my Stage IV de novo diagnosis, have had steady progression over the past 18 months, still have mets in multiple locations, I have done multiple rounds of chemo and ten weeks of rads, and all of my bloodwork has stayed rock solid (my numbers are "perfect" according to my nurse) throughout. All of my doctors have been surprised that it never even changed when I've been on chemo, but so far in the two years since my Dx I've never even had a little blip in any of my numbers.

WC3

Cowgal:

I'm sorry to hear about your recurrence.

If by blood work, you mean tumor markers, my breast cancer tumor markers were not elevated even with a 3.5cm grade 3 tumor in me.

Cowgirl13

cowgal, I'm so, so sorry to hear this. You and I are from about the same time frame. Praying that your next scan turns out well.

Meow13

You know that was my reaction too, tumor markers but I had BC when the readings were taken. This apparently under the assumption that the cancer was local only not effecting my blood readings.

So far the subsequent tests show almost no fluctuation after 8 years. Good news I guess.

cowgal

Thanks MelissaDallas, LoriCA, WC3, Cowgirl13, and Meow13 - Thank you all for your responses. I really need to pull out my original cancer stuff from when I was diagnosed the first time in March of 2010 and get all of this added to the bottom of my posts.

Cowgirl13 - Yes, I remember you from the horse thread. I hope you and your horse are doing well. I guess I will be started on the path to trying to get this beat again.

Meow13

I took everything off due to the data collection from outbrain.

cowgal

Meow13 - that's a good point.