Blood Drug Testing

Can/Will cancer be detected in a normal blood test?

I fear my husband has cancer, because all other treatments for his symptoms have failed to remedy his situation. I am ancious to know if the blood sample they took can show if he has cancer or if they have to run different tests to determine that.

Public Comments

1. It depends which type he has.
2. I believe only blood cancer can be suspected out of blood test...
3. If you suspect cancer, alert your doctor as soon as you can for testing. A blood test might show the symptoms of some kinds of cancer, but it will not tell you with any assurity if he has any kind of cancer. Special tests must be run in order to detect cancer. Whatever they ran the test for might include a blood test FOR cancer, but unless you tell your doctor your suspicion, they may not test for it. They may not have reason to test for it, or reason for not thinking it's any kind of cancer. My advice then is to call up your doctor and discuss your concerns with them. They'll let you know whether or not you should worry, and if they agree that it's a possibility, they'll advise you on what to do next. Good luck with your husband, and I hope that he will live a long, happy life with you.
4. My husband had Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma stage 3 and was cancer free for 8 months. Now they say it may be back. His blood test have been good. The pet scan showed he may have it aging so now they are going to do a biopsy to find out for sure. There are so many test they can do. Good Luck
5. By examining the faecal occult blood, the doctor can say whether the patient has intestinal cancer or not. Complete blood count and Blood chemistries can give evidences for cancer. Please see the webpages for more details on Cancer.
6. in leukaemia, blast cells will show on a blood test. blast cells are immature blood cells that are cancerous and have not developedinto to normal functioning cells. Not sure about any other cancers
7. No, a normal blood test will not show cancer. The lab or doctor needs to run a special blood work test to determine cancer. Usually they run blood work after cancer is already determined to set "the markers". Detecting cancer is the result of cat scans, MRI's, pet scans, bones scans, etc. Then once detected in that fashion, biopsy is done and then blood work to determine during treatment if the cancer is getting better or worse.