A question on cancer - Cancer Message Board

babydreams · 08-29-2008, 06:59 PM

Hi my name is Linda. I had a question I wanted to ask if anyone might know, last year my uncle found out he had prostate cancer but since has been cured of it. then my aunt got kidney cancer and her son as well both have had thier kidney removed and free from it then in april this year we found out my mom had cancer not sure where hers started we actually didnt know she had cancer till july this year we were told it was arthritis. she passed away from it july 27th they said it was all through her pancres, gallbladder and liver. there was only 3 siblings on my moms side of the family her her brother and her sister so all of them had cancer with in the last year, my aunts son is my 1st cousin and only a year older then me he is 41 and had cancer and other cousin has had throat cancer twice now and she is only 24 so im trying to find out what test can be done to see if there is any cancer in me i dont know if thats something they can detect or not but i was told by some friends that because of it running so high in my family i should find out

Grambo · 08-30-2008, 03:29 AM

Get your immunoglobulins checked although they will not tell you if you have cancer. Low levels are a good indicator of cancer. Although other conditions will give you low immunoglobulins like leukemia(a type of cancer) or kidney damage non cancer related. Some people naturally have a lower immune system but you should know this already if you get tons of infections. it isn't very common to have naturally low immunoglobulins.

They're fairly simple blood tests otherwise you need to get a MRI or CT scan if there is a good reason for them. Swollen neck lymph nodes are also a sign of cancer especially if they're swollen for a long peroid of time(2-4 weeks or more I'd say) and you don't have some type of infection like a cold or the flu.