Hi everyone
Just read the article on p35 of Saturday’s DM about a blood test that gives an early warning of whether breast cancer has returned. It says they have found that levels of some biomarkers differ between breast cancer patients whose cancer has returned and those who are still free of the disease. Here is a link to the on-line article:
dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2129559/Blood-test-provides-early-warning-return-breast-cancer-year-earlier-scans.html
Does anyone know anything about this? I have a meeting with my consultant tomorrow and I am going to raise this with her, if there are any clinical trials in the offing I want to be at the front of the queue! Living with the fear that my BC has returned (I’m a stage 3er) is becoming increasingly difficult, almost to the point of becoming a basket case and I can see the men in white coats edging closer by the day!
Sorry if this has already been covered, if it has just point me to the thread and I will update you on what the doc says.
Love DaisyGirl xx
Hi - I hadn’t seen the article and hadn’t heard about the blood test.
I don’t know whether this service is of any interest to you. A doctor based in Bristol who tests (privately) for remaining cancer cells still circulating in the body. Just something I’ve heard of, I’ve no idea if it’s any good as I haven’t tried it (as I don’t want to know!).
drhembry.com/specialised_diagnostics.html
Hi PWC & Tina
Thanks very much for this! Bit late in the day to take it all in but I am going to grill the doc tomorrow ande see what she has to say
Thanks again
DaisyGirlxx
interesting.
yes please update us daisygirl with your docs view/response about this.
xxx
Not heard of this before and very interesting. Definitely would like to hear what your consultant says. Elinda x
The general consensus of the medical team here is that they dont go looking for recurrences, apart from the annual or now even two yearly mammo, no other tests are done to check for early signs of recurrence. The thinking of this is based on two studies done in the 90’s comparing outcomes of women with stage 1-3 breast cancer who had the “basic followup” and the other group who were followed up with CT, bone scan and tumour markers, they found no differences in the overall survival between therese groups. Hence the “come and see us if you have a problem” approach. Personally, I think, surely a recurrence detected early and treated must have a better outlook than a recurrence or stage 4 diagnosed late, especially since new diagnostics (PET/CT) and treatments (cyberknife) are now available.
Hi Tina, what you describe is very much the response I got today, they basically said that having lots of tests would make no difference and my “wellbeing” was the important marker, and to come and see them if anything changed. I find it astonishing that anyone can just dismiss things that they have never even heard of and if I stand any chance of getting on a clinical trial I would have to try to do this on my own.
Still, at least the ultrasound I had today was all clear so I am still in the land of NED, apparently the raised area under my arm is caused by deep scarring which is elongating or some such.
Regards
DaisyGirlxx
DaisyGirl, I am pleased to hear that your follow up showed no evidence of recurrence. I think the medics sometimes lack the empathy and maybe understanding of what a challenge life after treatment can be. Surviving is not equal to thriving, in the future one can only hope that this technology will be more widely available. x
I would’t pay too much attention to some of the BC stuff that gets reported in the D Mail. Their standard of health reporting isn’t great and quite often they are given to printing stuff that is just rubbish. They write things like “doing X increases your chances of cancer by 15%…”, but they don’t actually give you a breakdown of the stats, when the study was done etc., so the report means nothing. When I was diagnosed back in 2006 it was widely believed that a lot of clinics in the UK banned the Mail from their waiting room tables and some doctors told women not to read the BC reports.
I find the Telegraph health news reports are much better and the arguments and stats have more clarity.
This new blood test was widely reported in the science press, too.
sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120328203624.htm
This website gives a summary on all press releases on Breast Cancer.
medicalxpress.com/conditions/breast-cancer/
Hi Cherub, I agree the DM is not the best place to be informed but in this instance Cancer UK did comment in the online version of the article so there is some credibility to the report
Hi Tina, as you say surviving is not equal to thriving, if I could have a blood test every 6 months that detected at the earliest stage that BC has returned I would be much happier and more able to just get on with my life, particularly if it means I avoid another round of chemo that I am not sure I could cope with.
Anyway, I can be quite stubborn and I am going to continue to investigate this and will report back on my progress!
Keep smiling everyone 
Daisyxx