Can cancer spread with no change in blood tests? - Cancer Message Board

beth193 · 03-27-2009, 05:14 AM

Hi guys, my mum was diagnosed with bone cancer (spread from breast cancer) a little over a year ago, she's been doing pretty well (considering they only gave her 3 months to live at the time!) but lately she's been having more pain in her bones where they know the cancer has 'hotspots'. Now, my aunt is a nurse and took her to get blood tests done to see if her cancer markers had risen any etc, and the doctor says her blood work is pretty much the same. Which I would find comforting, but my aunt says that doesn't necessarily mean the cancer hasn't spread (her husband died from similar cancer so she says she is talking from experience). So basically, I'm just wondering if any of you guys have heard of cancer getting worse without the specific markers, blood tests etc, changing much?

Thanks alot for any help!

Beth

mrsmediauph · 03-27-2009, 06:26 AM

My husband has Stage IV "base of tongue" cancer and his blood work has been normal all along.

SamQKitty · 03-28-2009, 05:05 PM

I'm so sorry to hear about your mother. Is she still receiving treatment? My understanding is that if the metasteses to her bones are from breast cancer, it is still treated as breast cancer, not bone cancer. Have they reviewed treatments and suggested any possibilities that could maybe manage this for another few years? You might want to post over at the breast cancer board, too.

As for blood tests, unfortunately they do not always show what's going on. My mother's cancer markers were close to normal even when she reached fourth stage (she also had breast cancer.)

Ruth

beth193 · 03-29-2009, 12:21 AM

Thanks for the replies guys, I really appreciate it.

SamQKitty- Yeah she's having chemo, just taking it via tablets now though, the IV ones stopped working and were making her too sick. They haven't really said what the expected prognosis is, I don't think its too long but yeah like I said she has been doing really well (up till the last week or so anyway).
I think my main confusion about the test results is that, when she was first diagnosed, they were really elevated (I think it was the cancer marker, or cancer count, or something like that), then after chemo they went down (to about 5- does that sound right?). Then they went up again, so she had more chemo, they went down again, etc etc. So, I would expect that if the cancer was spreading or making her sicker now they would have raised up again? Just as far as the previous pattern goes anyway... So I was hoping maybe it was something unrelated, something less serious.
Guess I'll just have to wait and see.. Thanks again for the replies