Thursday, May 1, 2008

How many times do patient goes under diagnosis (cancer test) while being under treatment for cancer

How many times do patient goes under diagnosis (cancer test) while being under treatment for cancer?
Hello, I am doing a research on cancer. I need to know how many times do patient goes under diagnosis (cancer test) while being under treatment for cancer? I understand it all varies depending upon type of cancer and stage of disease. But still need to get round about figure. I also need to know how much time normally cancer treatment lasts. This again can be average/round about figure as mentioned earlier. Regards
Cancer - 2 Answers
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1 :
While undergoing treatments for cancer, each patients has blood drawn before the next treatments to tell the doctor if the chemo has killed cells, which is does, and how many. It determines how low the numbers have gotten since the last treatment. It's an ongoing process. They have to continually draw blood. It's the only way they know if treatment is successful or not. Treatments also vary according to the type of cancer. Some people only have to go twice for treatments as did a friend of mine because her tumor in her breast came back benign, but the first time it was malignant. So the doctor wanted her to have just 2 treatments in order to kill any cancer cells that may have been there undetected. Others can have full treatments. between 6-8 and like I said depending on the type of cancer, may have to have treatments as many as 3 or 4 times. Separate times that is. It's a difficult question to answer because there are over 200 different types of cancer. Cancer is just one term for a broad use of the word cancer. See the problem? Hope that helps anyway. Blessings
2 :
You don't undergo diagnosis all throughout your treatment. I was diagnosed after my brain tumor was sent off for testing. After confirmation of cancer, drs determined what my treatment would be. I got a cbc once a week to check my blood counts. If low, I would have to postpone chemo until my blood counts came back within normal range. I got an mri every other month to check for tumor regrowth and still get one every 3 months. Most cancers will not show up in blood tests, although many specialized blood tests are being discovered. My treatment was 6 weeks of chemo every single day, along with radiation 5 days a week for 6 weeks, with a stronger boost the last week. After a month of no treatment, I was on chemo 5 days a month for 6 months. All through treatments, I had blood drawn every week, then had it drawn before chemo when radiation was over.
3 :
Your question is not really too clear. Cancer is an umbrella term for over 200 different types of disease . . some are more aggressive than others. In general, if a patient is suspected of having cancer than they undergo blood tests, CT, PET or MRI, and finally a biopsy of the tumor or area suspected of being malignant. Pathology confirms whether it is cancer or not. This only happens once . . unless pathology cannot determine the histology (cancer type) than the biopsy is sent out to a few different pathology labs. It is important to know exactly what type of cancer a patient has so that the right treatment can be given. Almost all known cancer types have a protocol (a guide book followed by oncologists) . .the protocol is a treatment designed around evidence based medicine . . a doctor can adjust the protocol to fit the situation if necessary. Thus everyone with a specific type of leukemia follows the same protocol no matter which hospital they are treated in . . . same with breast cancer . . and many other cancers. The biggest exception would be rare cancers that often have few protocols to follow. Which leads to the the length of time for treatment. Because cancer is a progressive disease which starts out as a single malignant cell and than grows indefinitely if not treated . . it stands to reason that the earlier or small the tumor or cancer than the easier it is to treat and the less time it will take to treat. Thus . . the more advanced the cancer and the more aggressive the disease than the longer treatment will be. So depending on the severity of the disease, treatment can be anywhere from a few months to years. My son underwent nine months of high dose chemo, four surgeries, nine more months of chemotherapy, followed by clinical trials . . about three years.
4 :
Laboratory Tests that Detect Cancer Since prevention is one of the most important cancer-fighting tools, it is important that cancer be detected as early as possible before it spreads. For warning signs, go to our Cancer Symptoms page. There are numerous cancer detection and prevention tests that can be used to detect cancer. We are listing the tests that are considered alternative or less toxic than standard conventional tests. Some of these tests are not used by conventional physicians, but you can always ask them to look into the test. It is important to understand that one should not rely on any one test - some tests can result in false positives or negatives. One must take all clinical factors into consideration to back up a diagnosis. AMAS - Anti-malignin antibody screen test is designed to pick up cancers well in advance of other signs and symptoms, months before conventional medical tests can detect it. However, for advanced cancer, if the antimalignin antibody is wiped out, the test won't work. For this, other types of testing is recommended. We have also heard of a few breast cancer patients have received a false negative on this test. Again, it is important not to rely on any one test. Oncolab will send a free test kit for you to take to your doctor. The test runs $125 in addition to your doctor's office charges for drawing blood. Call 1-800-9CATest for a test kit and information.



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