How to deal with metastatic cancer before tumors appear

efw
efw Member Posts: 20
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
This is related to my previous question about the GCC-B1 test, but I don't think anyone knows much about that test. So I'm trying to trick you all into answering by rephrasing. :) Is there anything that can be done for metastatic cancer before tumors actually appear? And if not, would any of you want to have a test done that allows you the knowledge that you will end up with liver or lung tumors, but there's nothing you can do about it until it happens? If anyone has any advice, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks.
Emily

Comments

  • pattieb
    pattieb Member Posts: 168
    #2
    No I don't think I want to take that test, I worry enough as it is and then have to wonder all the time.
    Pattie
  • VonnieKai
    VonnieKai Member Posts: 30
    #3
    I think we would have liked the test for the reason that we could have encouraged the doctors to be more aggressive with chemotherapy or found alternative treatments. From a patient's position, it's hard to have a basis for demanding treatment if, from the doctor's perspective, there is "nothing wrong". In my husband's case, the mets weren't diagnosed until several months after they actually showed up on the CT-Scan. The first time they appeared, the diagnosis was inconclusive and the oncologist wanted to "wait and see". After waiting a few months and another CT-Scan - he could definitely see the mets - within that time who knows what could have happened if we were given the option to aggressively treat the metastasis, that obviously was really there. Maybe there is some stage in tumor development where treatments are exponentially more effective and by waiting until physical tumors are visible, you miss that window of opportunity. But I'm not a medical professional and therefore I'm a pea brain.
  • efw
    efw Member Posts: 20
    #4
    Thanks for your replies, Pattie & VonnieKai. I'll poll everyone in my family over the Christmas holiday, too!

    Emily
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    #5
    If there was something I could do about it...absolutely, I would want the test. But if I couldn't do a thing until tumors had gotten that far, I agree with Pattie...I worry about to many things as it is and would rather not know.

    Just my two cents worth.

    Monika

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