Blood test for cancer.

[ninny]

Posted this on "alternative health" also.

Interesting article about detecting cancer from blood tests.

"A blood test so sensitive that it can spot a single cancer cell lurking among a billion healthy ones is moving one step closer to being available at your doctor's office."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2650953/posts


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[bluemoonluck]

I think this is a great advance in medicine....but I wonder if we will discover that everyone has at least a handful of rouge cancer cells in their systems at all times, and if we'll end up with a bunch of false positives?

[Bearfootfarm]

if we'll end up with a bunch of false positives?

I can see how that could happen.

Also, if it hasn't advanced enough to show up, then chemo would be the only treatment option

[Alice In TX/MO]

Of course. Your body (with a healthy immune system) is in a constant state of vigilance, knocking out pre-cancerous and cancerous cells.

This is why my hubby has so many skin cancers. He's on anti-rejection drugs for kidney transplant. His immune system can't do its normal job against cancer cells.

IF the blood test would show cancer cells, the docs would do other tests to determine the source.