Blood test question
 

How many times a year do you all get blood tests? I feel like I'm always asking my doc if I should get cbc and chemistry labs done. I use to get them every three months but it feels like lately it's every 6 months

Re: Blood test question
 

I got them every 3 months until I was around 6 years out, the went to 6 months.

Re: Blood test question
 

My onc sees me every four months; I have no idea why. (Perhaps because my fired onc let me go an entire year without a single visit.) He does a CBC and CMP every time. But it's worse than that. I see the endo every three months, and he does the same, plus thyroid, plus whatever else strikes his fancy. My PCP, thankfully, only does blood work once a year. Nonetheless, I'm having labs at least 8 times a year, unless I can combine the tests, which doesn't happen very often.

Oh, and I almost forgot the labs for the study, so that's one more set. Not to mention that if I have to see any other doctor for any little thing, you can bet another trip to LabCorp will be in the offing.

Re: Blood test question
 

I was every 3 months now being 4.5 years out I am at every 6 months assuming when I hit 5 yrs I may go to once a year.

Re: Blood test question
 

Before being metastatic I used to get it once every 6 months. It depends which ones are done. CBC and all basic stuff are simple, but won't tell you much about cancer coming back. Important are all 4 liver functions: AST, ALT, ALP and LD (or LDH) - if they go up our liver has a problem or there is activity going on (or something local with the liver, maight not be cancer related... but if they double there is a problem!). And of course tumor markers - if they watch them - in my case they did not. I would now watch CEA and CA15.3... but that is the doctor preference - they don't always show disease, it depends on the person. You had positive nodes, I would watch them for a while every 3 months.

They told me it does not matter when you find mets. It does -you can make better decisions when cancer has not spread everywhere...

Re: Blood test question
 

I'm a big advocate of serum HER2 monitoring. Three years out and NED, baseline and then 6 or 12 month intervals. Progressive disease, more often. You might look at Nuclea Biotech or Hertestonline websites.

Re: Blood test question
 

I get bloodwork every time I see my oncologist, which is every 3 months - CBC, CMP, Vitamin D & CA15-3.

Re: Blood test question
 

When they scheduled my first herceptin only treatment they didn't order blood work. I contacted the oncologist's scheduling multiple times and was told I no longer would get blood work. When I saw the oncologist two weeks ago I went with my blood work results from my endocrinologist but asked the doctor if I still needed blood work and she said "Yes, you had it done today, didn't you? I saw lab work." I told her I had brought those. No blood work was ordered for my future treatments either. The anastrozole requires blood work monitoring but I was told that would be the responsibility of my PCP. When I read how often others are getting blood work, it concerns me.