I'm currently having it done every 8 weeks. I had it done three times already and all have been negative. It checks for possible circulating cancer cells. They get a sample of your tumor from the pathology lab and then draw blood from you and compare the two. It can pick things up before scans can.

Absolutely use every diagnostic trick in the book. With AI things are going faster.

@A MyBCTeam Member, CTCs don’t mean it’s metastatic. It just shows the risk of recurrence or metastasis increases. Like I mentioned in a prior response, there are alternatives treatments that have shown to be effective in eliminating those, and even eliminating active cancers.

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A MyBCTea...

My issue really is that women who hear about these kinds of tests feel hopeful that recurrence will be found before a scan sees a lesion but if circulating tumor cells are found it says its considered to be metastatic so if the test comes out yes there are CTC's but its too early to detect on a scan does a woman have to wait until a scan does show something or does she start treatment based on the blood test results?
I know there are various methods women believe in to stabilize cancer and its up to every woman to research and come to her own conclusion what she is willing to try.

My cousin who is stage 4 had the test but said it’s hard to get because still fairly new and of course, not always covered by insurance. My onco has heard of it but said still very early in proving effectiveness and usually for stage 4 patients. In other words, not “standard” treatment protocol but hopefully will be someday soon. Great if you can get it though.