re: Will Bloodwork Detect Cancer?

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At what age should one start getting colonoscopies? And frequency?

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At 40, BUT, if your family has a high risk, then before 30. I have a niece that is 35 and fighting for her life from colon cancer. Also had a brother that died at 40 with it.

Oh, due to a high rate of colon cancer that runs in my family, I'm checked once a year. And yes, they find polyps every time. Had a bad one and had to go back in for another check two weeks later.

Wrong

LINK

It's 50 unless you are black or have a family history.

If no family history....around 45-50

If family history....around 40



On the OP topic. I have battled Stage IV Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma twice in the last 4 years. I grew concerned before the first diagnosis after a 2cm knot formed under my right jaw. No pain or tenderness. I thought it was an infection because I recently had a temporary crown come off. I went to my dentist who was puzzled. She referred me to an ENT who ordered a CT scan. It was determined to be a mass, however, he thought it looked benign in nature. Nevertheless, it had to be excised for biopsy.

The biopsy was inconclusive because 90% of the growth was necrotic tissue. The remaining viable portion showed high concentrations of protein C-24 which is typical for non-hodgkins Lymphoma. Just to small of a sample size to make a definitive diagnosis. They sent it to The Mayp Clinic to get a 2nd opinion. Their conclusion was the same.....inconclusive.

They basically told me to treat it as if I had cancer and to immediately see an Oncologist. Three days later, a had a bone marrow biopsy, a spinal tap, a Pet/CT scan and blood work. I had three more blood samples taken over the next 2 weeks as we waited for all the results.

After two weeks, I was told nothing showed positive for cancer. I was relieved....until a month later, another knot formed. Went through the excision process again but it was 100% positive.

Point being that I clearly had a Lymphoma a month earlier but none of the tests, including blood work, showed positive. I think the initial surgery and excision made those cancer cells start kicking into overdrive and one month later it had spread pretty rapidly throughout my neck, pulmonary and tracheal areas.

I remember a thread a few years ago in here about some young kid developed a cheap test to detect cancer. It was like 99% accurate but haven't heard anything come of it. I wonder if it's stil in development stage

I have to go every 2 months for blood tests as follow up from Testicular cancer, but they are specifically looking for tumor markers.

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Probably talking about the kid that claimed to develop a screening test for pancreatic cancer. His claims haven't ever been published in peer reviewed journals and there are a lot of questions regarding his conclusions, especially the sensitivity. Still awesome that he put in the work he did at 15, but the protein he looked at hasn't ever been found to be more useful than CA-19-9 and that is for treatment follow-up rather than general screening.

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That's him, thanks for the response.

See a couple of answers, but neither addressed frequency. If no family Hx, other risk factors, and your first one (at 50) is normal, you get them every 10. Depending on what is found, could be as frequently as in a year, but usually 3-5 if it's abnormal.


ETA to fix a stupid format

I don't have those stats. They'd be easy to google. That's not me saying I'm not interested or for you to find them yourself, but the answers I find won't be any better than the ones you do on frequency. Most oral cancers seen in smokeless tobacco users are only seen with tobacco- they're very rare in non-imbibers. As far as metastasis, there's tons of lymphatic drainage of the area, and I believe many wind up with radical neck dissections to stop lymphatic spread (metastasis). That's a wild procedure. Basically anything that's in between your shoulders and head that doesn't keep you alive or make your head move gets cut out.

I don't know time of onset from first use. Prolonged use increases chances. It's one of those rather impossible questions to answer, because there are very few people who dip heavily for 30 years, quit, then develop cancer to study. Usually they dip for 30 years, develop cancer, then quit.