2 questions

tousled1 · 10-23-2006, 05:12 PM

Lindyjo,

My oncologist does not believe in tumor marker tests -- too unreliable. If you are on Herceptin the best test you can have is the Bayer Serum HER2 test. There is a thread on the board here dealing with the Serum Test if you do a search you will find it. A good rule of thumb is if you have any symptom that lasts for 2 weeks it is best to get it checked out. Whether that means an MRI, CT, bone scan or a PET/CT scan.

sadie · 10-23-2006, 09:46 PM

My onc feels the same way....and I'm glad.
I just had my annual physical which included mammogram & breast mri and muga scan and ct scan. I had the cat scan of my abdomen & pelvic area due to trace of blood in urine.
When I had the mammogram, they called me back in right after the mamm so they could do a magnified view. They said it was to compare with a previous magnified view. (yeah, right...was my 1st thought)
The wait for results on all of these tests was agonizing. All of those old feelings/memories came back. The scan results did show a small 7mm spot on my liver, but my onc said not to worry because of all of the false-positives. She truly does not believe it would be cancer of the liver.
But, she said she will now have to do another scan in 3 months to see if the spot is still there,shrunk or whatever. Now, I'm nervous about that!
By the way, no more blood in urine after taking antibiotics. Probably just a bladder infection according to my dr. All other tests came back negative for cancer.
I hate all of the anticipation.