Blood Drug Testing

Can blood tests uncover cancer?

I went to my doctor to ask about a lump i had at the top of my leg, under the skin, at the joint in between the leg and the groin. She said it is most probably an inflamed lymph gland but told me to come back for a blood test. Why would that be? can blood tests pick up on cancer? what can be found out by having one?

Public Comments

1. yes, elevated levels of LDH in the blood give evidence of cancer, don't worry, you'll know after the blood test, no need to panic. I know the above from Grey's anatomy so it may not be correct...
2. Oftentimes an inflamed lymph node is a sign of an infection. That's the job of nodes. They take on the infection and it will swell. The blood test will show an elevated amount of white blood cells if that's the case. That only means the white cells are attacking the infection. If you had cancer, the blood test would only show leukemia because you would have an abnormal high amount of white blood cells only they will be immature and useless. That's the difference between the white cells fighting infections and the immature cells that are useless and causing major problems. The LDH the first post is referring to is to detect the possibility of melanoma metastasis but this doesn't sound like that what's happening. Good luck and be well
3. I had one detected because I became anaemic. That was the result of a blood test. Then they did more tests to find where it was.
4. Some people (but not all) have cancer markers in their blood. If those are elevated, it can mean cancer is present. The doctor performs what is called a CEA test, and that will check for the markers.