Blood Drug Testing

If you have the beginning stage of any type of cancer, will this show up in a blood test no matter what ?

because it will affect your cells? I feel like they don't test you for cancer at the dr. ever, so how can you know if you have something until you start having pain? So every year when they give me a blood test at my check up, is this going to detect something? If not what are they even checking your blood for?

Public Comments

1. I believe most cancers won't show up in your blood until it is too late. If there was a reliable general cancer blood test, I am sure it would be part of a regular doctors visit at the very least for older people.
2. NOT NECESSARY MY LATE MOM HAD CANCER AND NO BLOOD TEST REVEALED ANY THING ., JUST CT-SCANS AND /OR MRI SCANS
3. Routine bloods will not show most types of cancer, these test are usually checking the cells of your blood, testing for things like anaemia, depending on what they do at you check up they may also be checking your liver function, your kidney function, for diabetes and for some other conditions. It is correct that the gold-standard test for most tumours is MRI or PET scanning, these will not be performed unless something in your history is suggestive of cancer. Pain is rarely the first symptom. Hope this helps.
4. There is no known way to test the blood or any other means to tell if you have cancer or not. A few cancers have what is called a 'marker' that is usedful once the cancer has been diagnosed. With the marker information a doctor can tell if the patient is responding to treatment or not. But there is nothing reliable to find the beginning stages of all cancers.
5. Only a few precursors that I know of. If you have a CBC (Complete Blood Count) done, then signs such as high white blood cell count or anemia can (not always) be a sign to have testing done. I recently had a cbc done and it came back with my white blood cell count high, and red blood cell count (and associated bloodwork-hemaglobyn, etc...) low. At first they thought it might have been a bleeding ulcer due to my history with reflux, but when they did a EGD (scope out your stomach) every thing was fine, now my doc is in a hurry to get me in for a bone marrow biopsy. I guess to answere your question, cbc can show the precursor to leukemia, but more testing definetly needs to be done before anything is conclusive.
6. There are blood markers for certain cancers (e.g. CEA and 19-9 for colon cancer). But these are not useful as a single measurement as a given number does not show the presence or absence of the relevant cancer. Instead these blood markers are used in known-cancer cases to spot signs of growth or reduction in tumour.
7. no maybe just for some blood cancers.
8. It doesn't always show up in your blood tests. thats a good thing though. I was just diagnosed with lung cancer. I did start having pain in my chest, went to my dr. she sent me to ER for a chest xray, which showed something, from there it was cat scans, pet scans, biopsy and diagnosis. Monday I begin my treatment. If you have any concerns please see your dr. the tests they do are quickly done and with very little pain or discomfort. Good luck, hope this helps you a little.