Blood Drug Testing

Would cancer show up on a blood test?

My mum has various symptoms of, i don't know what actually, but she has had biopsy and blood tests and is going in for a CT on friday. Her blood work came back ok and i just wondered, if she had anything serious would it have shown up in her blood? Also what do they look for when testing blood?

Public Comments

1. Some cancers do show up in blood tests, others do not.
2. Only blood related cancers (hematological cancers) like leukemia and such would necessarily show up on the adverage blood test (CBC, etc.) Some cancer markers are in the blood, but they don't tell you what type of cancer you have or how bad it is. You don't mention what kind of biopsy she had, but that would be more indicative of whether or not she had cancer. Good luck to you and your Mum.
3. well, it depends what kind of cancer it is. i.e. lung cancer, skin cancer, breast cancer, etc.. it's a good sign that everything came back good with the blood test, but that could mean that she has a different kind of cancer that wouldnt show. when they do a blood test, they make sure you are healthy to go for surgery, CT scans, or an MRI scan. also, they check to make sure all the chemicals and nutrients in your body are in balance. hope this helps, and good luck =)
4. Absolutely!
5. It's only blood related cancers that show up in blood work I'm pretty sure because other types are solid tumours and generally can't be detected in the blood. It's a pretty general test to do though, just so they don't miss anything. The CT scan will show up anything sinister though, so you answers will lie with that. Best of luck to your mother.
6. Only if they're looking especially for it or if it's a blood related cancer. I had 3 blood tests in the year before I was diagnosed with bowel cancer and they all came back ok.
7. There are certain things in blood tests like platelets and white blood cells/red blood cells etc. which, when they are really off, and combined with perhaps other symptoms too, can point to the possibility of cancer. I know they do much further testing (like the CT scan) from head to toe to see if anything shows up anywhere in the body but only a biopsy will tell you exactly what TYPE of cancer it is. The cancer literally "lights up" when you're injected with certain chemicals and run through certain types of scans, ie bone scan, soft tissue scans. Polyps can turn cancerous and turn into colon cancer. It's good to have a check up "in that area" at least every 5 years.
8. There really isn't any single test to detect all cancers and general blood tests cannot usually identify cancer unless a request was made to check for specific markers that could be associated with a particular type of cancer. Usually an analysis of other symptoms along with a range of blood tests may confirm that there is something not quite right, which may require further detailed tests and evaluations. This may include X-Rays, CT, MRI or PET scans. A general blood test such as a Full Blood Count can however provide a lot of information, which in conjunction with other symptoms may establish the need for more specific tests that could identify the particular ailment more precisely. FBC measures include; - the amount of haemoglobin in the blood; - the number of red blood cells (red cell count); - the percentage of blood cells as a proportion of the total blood volume (haematocrit or packed cell volume); - the volume of red blood cells (mean cell volume); - the average amount of haemoglobin in the red blood cells (known as mean cell haemoglobin); - the number of white blood cells (white cell count); - the percentages of the different types of white blood cells (leucocyte differential count); and - the number of platelets.
9. my mom's did. she's got stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer. that was one of the first tests they ran.