Cancer

There are many web resources available to help you learn more about cancer. Below are just a few examples:

• Cancer.net
• Patient Power
• International Waldestrom's Macroglobulinemia Foundation
• National Cancer Institute
• American Cancer Society
• OncoLink
• NIH MedlinePlus
• FamilyDoctor.org
• KidsHealth
• Cancer Support Community: Resources
• National Comprehensive Cancer Network: Patient and Caregiver Resources
• Leukemia & Lymphoma Society: Types of Blood Cancer

The views expressed in these articles are those of the source and do not necessarily reflect the views of laboratory tests or the laboratory tests Editorial Review Board.

Peter DeNardis – There is Life with Waldenstrom’s

Adapted from the full article appearing on the Stories of Hope page of the International Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia Foundation (IWMF) web site.

“Get your affairs in order. You have a rare, incurable blood cancer called Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia. Average survival rate is 6 years. Given your symptoms and blood test values, we have to treat immediately.” Those were jarring words for someone in his early 40s, married, and with three children ranging in ages from 7 to 16.

Read his full story of hope.

Michael J. Smith: 22 Years and Counting - My Cancer Journey

Adapted from the full article appearing on the Stories of Hope page of the International Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia Foundation (IWMF) web site.

The following is an account of a life journey with Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia (WM) that later turned into WM with Lymphoma (WM/L) - categorized in my medical file as "restaging of diagnosed WM with transformation into diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL)." My story is aimed at beginning patients, so I will cover the WM episode more thoroughly than the subsequent WM/L. Full disclosure: I am only a novice in medicine, so I may have occasionally included errors in my treatment. Consequently, I have omitted my doctors' names to avoid having any of these errors attributed to them. [For more information, see the IWMF page What is WM? and the detailed guide on the American Cancer Society's site.]

As with many WM'ers, there was a telltale indicator that my WM began well before it was formally diagnosed. Buried in my internist's blood work report in June of 1994 was the fact that my Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) was 83.3 mm/hr – way too high – when it should have been in the range 0 - 15 mm/hr. [An ESR is a non-specific test for inflammation. It can indicate that inflammation is occurring somewhere in the body but cannot determine where or what is causing it. For more, see the ESR article.]

My internist didn't have a reason for it, and I swiftly buried it within the cobwebs of my mind as I had another more pressing problem. I had a cancer – more specifically Acinic Cell Carcinoma – in my left parotid gland (a salivary gland), and I needed to take care of it immediately. This was operated on in July, followed by radiation treatments a month later. The problem has not recurred since, although some symmetry has been lost in my facial features. Unbeknownst to me, it was the beginning of interweaving threads of curable and incurable cancers in my life. Read his full story of hope.

Additional Patient Stories and Blog Posts

The following are from the cancer community on Patient Power, a patient education organization dedicated to connecting patients and care partners to the knowledge of a community of cancer experts to empower them to live well with cancer.

CLL

Shelter From the Storm

Leukemia

Did I Miss Something?

Lung

Dealilng With the Elephant One Slice at a Time

The Power of Owning a Pet

Lymphoma

The Story I Tell Myself

Melanoma

I'll Get to See My Children Grow Up Thanks to a Random Call to the Eye Doctor

MPN

It's Not Wasted Time If It's a Zebra: Anna's Story

ET Frustrations Part I: Understanding ET

Multiple Myeloma

Through Adversity to Opportunity: Enduring Lessons From Pat Killingsworth

Pancreatic

Partners In Health

Prostate

Research Paying Off for Men With Advanced Prostate Cancer

The views expressed in these articles are those of the source and do not necessarily reflect the views of laboratory tests or the laboratory tests Editorial Review Board.

Understanding Cancer Diagnostic Blood Tests
Source: Patient Power

Transcript of Video

Tamara Lobban-Jones:

Hello and welcome to this Ask the Expert webinar, "Understanding Cancer Diagnostic Blood Tests." My name is Tamara Lobban-Jones. We've received your questions, and we're going to do our best address them.

Our featured guest has taught hospital training programs, graduate programs, medical school students all over the world. In her 35 years as a professor, she has taught over 10,000—yes, you heard me right—10,000 non-science majors, and she also serves as Editor-in-Chief at the American Society of Clinical Laboratory Science taking time out of her busy schedule to personally answer dozens upon dozens of questions submitted by patients daily.

Dr. Leclair:

It's a privilege to talk to everybody today, Tamara. Thank you.

Tamara Lobban-Jones:

Dr. Leclair, in our ongoing lab test series featured on Patient Power, we've learned about dozens of cancer diagnostic blood tests, and there are various things that the values are impacted by, whether it's dehydration, running up and down stairs, extracurricular activities, these can cause the values to fluctuate. And I know we've also—you've also taught us that timing is everything.

Can you give us a brief overview of the cancer diagnostic tests you use today and kind of help us understand why they're so critical to a cancer diagnosis?

Dr. Leclair:

Okay. That's a good three-credit course in graduate school, but we're going to try and do this a little bit more tersely. Try and think of laboratory tests in three different levels. The first level would be introductory or screening test. The second one would be more of a let's follow this down for a little bit, see where it leads us. And then finally, typically the more expensive, the actual diagnostic tests.

So if we start with that first bunch, the general screening, we've all had them, we all know them to a certain extent, and that would be things like a common liver panel or the common metabolic a panel that you might have in a chemistry setting or a CDC. And the things that a physician is looking for generally at that level is, is there anything that looks really odd? Is there something that I need to really look at more closely?

For example, a lowered white cell count or a lowered hemoglobin count or an increased enzyme in the chemistries would cause a physician to say, gee, do I have an explanation for this? Oh, yes, they have a viral disease. Oh, yes, they had recent surgery, something like that. Can I explain these anomalies? If I can't, then I need to go to slightly more specific second-level kinds of tests.

And the one probably that everybody knows the most about is LD, lactic dehydrogenase. It's an enzyme that's found in every cell in the body. It should be inside the cell, not in the bloodstream. But if there's a lot of cell turnover, if there's a lot of cell damage or death, then more of it's going to leak out into the bloodstream, and that would be an indicator to a physician that something somewhere is definitely going on. You have to look further or more deeply into the situation. So you've got screening tests and then secondary tests.

And then finally you've got typically the ones that take the longest, typically the ones that are the most expensive, typically the ones that most people are nervous about, which would be the genetic tests or the flow cytometry tests or tests that are specific for maybe only three or four different kinds of diseases. So you have to kind of think about these in terms of layers of thinking or of process.

Please remember the opinions expressed on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of our sponsors, contributors, partners or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That's how you'll get care that's most appropriate for you.