Can the oncologist tell ...

Fergus2007

... how well the chemo is working based on the blood test and it's results?

apache4

I am Stage IV for almost two years now and it seems from my experience that they can only tell how it is working by looking at the scans. My liver enzymes stay "high" but stable so that is a good sign from blood test, but to see the actual tumors, the scan is needed and that is why they do them every three months or so. Then, as you have probably read before, it is hard to tell dead tumors from live ones, cysts, etc. so, who knows? Not to mention, everyone is so different. I feel like I am just along for the ride..

KathiM

One of many indicators...
My treatment was chemo and rads at the same time, so every week a 'progress' x-ray was put into the mix...did it during my rads treatment, same machine. Blood tests were never a good indicator for me...so, my onc didn't rejoice when CEA was lower...it was .7 at time of diagnosis.
What the blood test did do was quickly and accurately find my bottoming-out white count...I didn't feel that bad, when my onc's office called and said 'If you are around people, please reschedule and go home. Otherwise, we may see you in the hospital with pneumonia'.
I had EXTREME pain...my tumor was resting on my tailbone. I noticed the difference about 2 weeks in...the pain was lessening, the tumor was shrinking...also, I started passing icky-looking and no better smelling stuff out of my bowel...I asked, my onc said it's destroyed tumor...

Hugs, Kathi

Fergus2007

apache4 said:

I am Stage IV for almost two years now and it seems from my experience that they can only tell how it is working by looking at the scans. My liver enzymes stay "high" but stable so that is a good sign from blood test, but to see the actual tumors, the scan is needed and that is why they do them every three months or so. Then, as you have probably read before, it is hard to tell dead tumors from live ones, cysts, etc. so, who knows? Not to mention, everyone is so different. I feel like I am just along for the ride..

Last months the oncologist said that my fathers liver enzymes have gone down and that it was reason for optimism (although he refused to elaborate)

Yesterday after evaluating the blood wark he again was rather optimistic.

A CT scan is scheduled after the next round of chemo. (- and I have issues with CT scans anyhow as they CAN show alot of other stuff which is NOT Cancer)

Fergus2007

KathiM said:

One of many indicators...
My treatment was chemo and rads at the same time, so every week a 'progress' x-ray was put into the mix...did it during my rads treatment, same machine. Blood tests were never a good indicator for me...so, my onc didn't rejoice when CEA was lower...it was .7 at time of diagnosis.
What the blood test did do was quickly and accurately find my bottoming-out white count...I didn't feel that bad, when my onc's office called and said 'If you are around people, please reschedule and go home. Otherwise, we may see you in the hospital with pneumonia'.
I had EXTREME pain...my tumor was resting on my tailbone. I noticed the difference about 2 weeks in...the pain was lessening, the tumor was shrinking...also, I started passing icky-looking and no better smelling stuff out of my bowel...I asked, my onc said it's destroyed tumor...

Hugs, Kathi

The oncologist is keeping the CEA resulta to himself.
He never was in any pain to begin with (as the tumor was very small to begin with eventhough he was diagnosed as stage4)

... but there sure is *stuff* being passed (I guess the entire colon is re-newing itself)

pamness

As I understand it no, they can't tell just by blood tests. They need the scans too. And you are right, they show up all kinds of "junk" that have nothing to do with anything but that is what we have. My blood tests were great for red blood cell count, white blood cell, how was my liver tolerating chemo, but my CEA is not all that indicative of anything except the trend seems to track what is going on. Everyone has the same issues with CT scans, but - there isn't a great alternative. Best of luck.

Pam

kristasplace

I asked my onc how he would know if the chemo was working after he told me we were "going for the cure", and he didn't have a real good answer for me. The way i figure it, since my margins were clear, and the four cancerous lymph nodes were removed, they will not know if i am cured until i'm able to go five years without recurrence, or metastasis. As far as tumors go, i would think it's the same thing. Sure, the tumor is gone, but what about those microscopic cancer cells that may be floating around, but they cannot detect?

Anyway, i don't think the onc's can really tell. They can tell if you're tolerating the chemo, but if there was more, they would be straighter with their answers.

Many hugs,
Krista

llb1601

After I was diagnosed with Stage 3, the oncologist ordered a Pet Scan and blood work. The pet scan did not show any evidence of disease nor did the blood work, so the oncologist said the chemo was preventive. I was not going to have chemo, but he ran some program that showed the difference between the survival rate with and without chemo based on my cancer. The survival rate was 50% higher with chemo. I have to admit that I often wonder how the experts come up with these numbers, but I went for the chemo.