Need info from an oncologist

[Liberty Belle]

regarding a friend who just learned his girlfriend, a nurse, has been withholding info on her condition. He is very worried and would appreciate the truth.

She's a breast cancer survivor who had a masectomy. A few months ago she had marker tests come back positive, but followups have failed to show where the cancer is. She'd been telling him the tests were false positives, but now she says that's not true; the cancer is there, she's been going through more tests and says it will eventually show up somewhere, and she'd have to go through chemo etc all over again and may not want to go through it. SHe's now talking very morbidly about funeral planning etc. and doesn't want him to go to the doctor appointments with her.

If marker tests come back positive in a breast cancer survivor, what does that really mean?

Is her prognosis likely to be grim, or could she be worrying over nothing?

Any insight you could provide would be appreciated.

[REP]

1. It Could Mean Anything

Without her records and a detailed history, it's impossible to tell what's going from the information provided. It depends upon what is meant by a "marker test" (white blood cell count? hormone receptors? sonogram? CT scan? BCA?) and what those results are, among other things.

[Liberty Belle]

2. Repeated blood tests all showed markers for cancer,

from what I was told. These were done over a four-month period, but various scans during the same time came back negative.

I don't know if that narrows it down enough for you to provide any guidance, but I'd appreciate any thoughts you could share.

[REP]

3. Not Enough Information

Obviously she's had blood tests, but which ones? Without knowing which ones and what the results were, and what they were previously, no one can tell you anything.

You're worried about your friend's friend, but trying to pry into her diagnosis on second-hand half-understood information is not the best way to go about it. Ask her.