Tumor Markers

[Silas]

I had testicular cancer about 1 and a half years ago. Recently some things showed up on a cat scan that worried my doctor, so he ran my tumor markers. They can back normal, which was very good news. I was wondering how good are the tumor markers at detecting cancer? Could they be negative, but there still be cancer? Im going in for a biopsy in a week so Ill know more after that, but I was just curious as to how good the tumor markers are at detecting cancer. Thanks all!

[dadmo]

Pure seminoma may not produce markers. What was your original tumor made of? If it was non-seminoma did you have any teratoma?

[Silas]

Pure seminoma will produce no markers. What was your original tumor made of? If it was non-seminoma did you have any teratoma?

My first tumor was non-seminoma and I did have teratoma.

[Scott]

Pure seminoma will produce no markers.

More accurately, pure seminoma often produces no markers. With pure seminoma, AFP is never elevated. However, hCG is elevated in 10-25% of patients with pure seminoma.

[Silas]

So any response on how accurate the tumor markers are?

[dadmo]

They are very accurate if they are elevated but you may also have cancer when they aren't elevated. A positive means you have it a negitave doesn't tell you much.

[Silas]

They are very accurate if they are elevated but you may also have cancer when they aren't elevated. A positive means you have it a negitave doesn't tell you much.

Thanks for the info, so basically im still in the waiting stage. So I know that it still could be cancer, but its not definately cancer. I guess a negative is the best I could have got though.

[Already Bald]

I had testicular cancer about 1 and a half years ago. Recently some things showed up on a cat scan that worried my doctor, so he ran my tumor markers. They can back normal, which was very good news. I was wondering how good are the tumor markers at detecting cancer? Could they be negative, but there still be cancer? Im going in for a biopsy in a week so Ill know more after that, but I was just curious as to how good the tumor markers are at detecting cancer. Thanks all!

Are you going to have a ct assisted needle biopsy of a lung mass?
If the CT showed a lung met, and it's path is concurrent with germ cell cancer- you will be a canidate for chemo. Don't worry, they know what they are doing, you will be okay.
Keep us posted.

[Silas]

Are you going to have a ct assisted needle biopsy of a lung mass?
If the CT showed a lung met, and it's path is concurrent with germ cell cancer- you will be a canidate for chemo. Don't worry, they know what they are doing, you will be okay.
Keep us posted.

Yeah they are doing the CT assisted biopsy of the mass. What do you mean by if its path is concurrent to germ cell cancer might do chemo?

[Already Bald]

They are going to look at the cellular make up of the tissue they extract during the biopsy to see if it is similar in nature to the original tumor. If it is, then you will likely need chemo- but keep in mind the chemo will cure you.
Don't worry about it until you get your results and hear it from your oncologist. They do this stuff all the time with terrific results.
I have to warn you- the procedure is not easy and you will be really uncomfortable because they will need you to lie perfectly still for a long time. But you will be fine.
Hang tough!