Full of questions today--Bayer Serum Test

[Lisa]

Friends,

If you have had the Bayer serum test, can you tell me
1. Why your onc decided to give it?
2. How frequently you have it?
3. Did it change your treatment in any way?

Love and light,

Lisa

[kk1]

Hi Lisa;


1. My onc agreed to have the test done immediately after I brought it to his attention that the FDA had recently approved the test and that it was routinely available from Lab corp and quest labs. It was a very funny exchange because I had brougth all the print outs and papers about it from this site. When I started the conversation he laughed and said he did not need to read the material because if I looked closely at the original references (1994) I would see he and his students were the first to publish on developing an ELISA antibody for HER2 and it's potential use in monitoring. Goes to show just how long even simple tests can take to move from basic research to routnine clinical use. Even he had been unaware that it was easy to now get the test and coverd my most peoples insurance. Gotta love this site for information even when you have a good onc.

2. So we started by taking it every month for 3 months to get my baseline which seems to to be in the 7-9 range. Now I only get the test done every 10-12 weeks.

3. Have not really changed anything treatment wise since I am currently NED, however we decided to now only do scans every 6 months unless the markers start to move up. I had been getting scans every 3 months which after almost two years gets old, particularly since I am allergic to the contrast so I have to get really drugged up with steriods and strong anti-histamines before each test.