Guest guest Posted September 20, 2009 Report Share Posted September 20, 2009 Tumor markers are not always reliable indicators of cancer progression. A recent study, published in March 2009 (Faina Linkov, et al; European Cytokine Network. Volume 20, Number 1, 21-6, March 2009), for example, shows that only 34 out of 55 biomarkers had a detection rate for cancer higher than 60% in the sample of participants whereas 21 of the markers had a less than 60% detection rate. Cancer marker results MUST be confirmed by other tests to be useful. Factors that can influence the marker levels are the following: - conditions unrelated to cancer can cause abnormal results - there are NO tumor markers that are free of false negatives or false positives - large amounts of the specific marker can be released when chemotherapy or other treatments result in the death of cancer cells. (http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/tumor-marker-tests.html?pageNum=2) This really means that a SUCCESSFUL treatment can often result in an increase in tumor markers! For people who use alternative measures of cancer treatment the caveat should thus be: do not rely too much on cancer markers. The psychological effect of the marker can be much worse than what it is actually indicating. Marc Swanepoel - infomcf oleander soup Sunday, September 20, 2009 12:47 AM My tumour marker keeps going up...... .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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