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Dec 18, 2003 - 11:44 am
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. |
Joined: Mar 2003
Re: How to deal with metastatic cancer before tumors appear
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
Joined: Nov 2003
Re: How to deal with metastatic cancer before tumors appear
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.
Joined: Jul 2003
Re: How to deal with metastatic cancer before tumors appear
Thanks for your replies, Pattie & VonnieKai. I'll poll everyone in my family over the Christmas holiday, too!
Emily
Re: How to deal with metastatic cancer before tumors appear
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