The wife of a man at work has Stage IV Breast Cancer. The doctor made her retire in April. He sometimes talks about "her counts", but none of us want to question him as to exactly what that means. Maybe someone here can explain.

He once said her "CAT" score rose from 27 to 35 in 3 months. Recently, he said her "Counts" had increased to 45 and a test earlier this month indicated they had tripled. His wife is now taking chemo again.

Please excuse my ignorance, but what exactly constitutes "counts" and what is a "CAT" score?

It's very awkward for us to ask him questions - we feel like we're invading his privacy since he talks about it very little. We want to be supportive and helpful - but we also would like to understand what he's talking about when he does share information with us.

Can anyone help? Thank you.

I do not know the particulars with breast cancer but I can tell you from my mother's experience with ovarian cancer that "counts" means the number of tumor marker. For instance, a CA125 blood test is a tumor marker for ovarian cancer. From 0 - 35 is normal. Anything over that and red flags go up.

Usually when my mom gets a CAT scan they are looking for new tumor activity. They have never mentioned CAT score before. They only say whether or not new activity is present. They are able to sometimes differtiate between scar tissue and tumor by looking at a combination of the CAT scan and the CA125 test.

I hope this helps.
Natalie

Natalie