Hello Helen.,
Yes. That’s very true. I’m a Physician Assistant in cardiac surgery. I have been dealing with stage 4 colon cancer Metz to liver. I’ve had two operations and a third one to place an HAI pump. Hepatic Infusion Pump. It worked beautifully and CLEARED the cancer in my liver. It’s been 2 years.
However, I continue to have recurrence and have been on Chemo multiple times. It always decreases the two or three remaining lesion, but does not clear them!!
I have also had several Signatera tests. As you know Signatera tests takes you lesion from surgery and analyzes the DNA makeup of the tumor. Then they can detect that DNA structure in future books tests. The last one I had was in early August. It was 136. Another test was done in early November and it was 11. Great response.
BUT!! Interestingly, after doing more research I realized that the oncologist is only concerned with decreasing the size of the tumor or eliminating the cancer.
However, I have learned that tumors shed cancer tumor cells like our skin and hair. This is what the Signatara blood test measures… cancer tumor DNA cells (CT-DNA).
It is highly sensitive for remaining circulating cancer tumor cells.
So here’s the problem. You can have a “clean” CT and STILL have cancer!! I was NOT aware of that. I was only focused on my CT. I went from multiple 1-2cm tumors to only a couple small remaining tumors after therapy. Just can’t seem to kill them all!!
The Signatera test is currently the only way of confirming cancer FREE!!! That test must be ZERO!
Cancer recurrence comes primarily from circulating CT-DNA cells continuing to circulate in your bloodstream. These cells then finally “seed” somewhere in your body and created another tumor. I was thinking that if I have a clean CT, I’m in the clear. Not true.
So, what therapy is also killing the CT-DNA cells remaining in our bloodstream? It seems no one is addressing these??
And there’s one more group of cells that no one is addressing. Cancer Stem cells. These cancer stem cells sits back and watches and learns from previous treatments and learn how to evade future treatments.
To truly be cancer free, we need to have a clean CT, a negative Signatera test and have no idea how cancer stem cells are measured for their absence or presence..
So, in closing, you are correct. The vast majority of cancer treatment is focused on the tumors size. And not with truly monitoring and confirming cancer free through additional testing.
Love to hear your thoughts.