Pancreatic Cancer Blood Tests

Submitted on March 27, 2012

You will find a number of pancreatic cancer blood tests which perform the basic function of aiding the diagnosis of this form of cancer. Rather, the test would be normally recommended to find out the intensity of the caner and the stage that the person is in. Blood tests for pancreatic cancer would be just one way of going about it and pancreatic cancer may necessitate other forms of tests too, especially for diagnosis such as a pancreas biopsy and ultrasounds.

Pancreatic Cancer Blood Test Reasons

A pancreatic cancer blood test would prove important once the diagnosis has been made so as to help the doctor look at the development and stage of the cancer of one’s pancreas. Even here, other tests besides blood tests for pancreatic cancer may be required. For instance, to check on the progress of the cancer, one might require to see whether the pancreatic cancer has spread such that it has affected the bones. In such a situation, there would be the need for the doctor to ask for a bone scan. When a person is affected by pancreatic cancer, the disease simply starts in the tissues but this does tend to spread. The pancreas is an organ which performs the task of enzyme secretion which would be important when it comes to digestion. Another reason why this organ is vital is due to hormone secretion which is imperative from the point of view of sugar metabolism regulation.

Preparation

When taking any blood tests for pancreatic cancer, talk to the doctor about preparation. This is because of the different possible tests as well as the specific intent behind these tests which could look at different factors from tumor markers to general health.

Procedure

When it comes to a pancreatic cancer blood test, the procedure to follow would be that of a regular blood test. However, the analysis would be different and it could be that these tests look for certain tumor markers that your doctor wishes to identify since these would be those given by pancreatic cancer cells. There are different proteins used in the blood tests for pancreatic cancer and these help with identification of stages of the cancer. One has to remember that there is still a lot of research to be done and such blood tests for pancreatic cancer may not be completely accurate. There are also other different blood tests involved such as those looking at possible causes behind jaundice and certain blood tests for diabetes.
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