patrick1945
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Posts:19
Wife was diagnosed with NSCLC about 1 yr. ago. She's 69 yr./old in good health. She's had 7 rounds of chemo, lung resection, and 6 weeks of radiation. Her diagnosis indicates stage 3b. She also had a mediastinascopy which showed cancer in quite a number of her chest lymph nodes.
Due to pain/shortness of breath, some pleural fluid was drawn off a few weeks ago. Oncologist called to say that some cancer cells appeared in the fluid, but test didn't show whether they're live or dead.
Questions:
1. is this normal...that the test wouldn't show whether live or dead?
2. what test would be definitive?
3. if cells are live, what treatments might be appropriate ?
Thank You.
Forums
Reply # - March 28, 2015, 02:21 PM
Hi Patrick,
Hi Patrick,
I'm sorry about the find though I'm not sure about the difference made in live or dead cells so I've asked Dr. West to comment.
All best,
Janine
Reply # - March 28, 2015, 03:11 PM
There is no way to test
There is no way to test whether cancer cells in pleural fluid are alive or dead. The main question is whether there are cancer cells at all, and if so, the cancer is characterized as a malignant pleural effusion. Unfortunately, the presence of cancer cells in the pleural fluid also indicates that the cancer cells are circulating in the rest of the body, so it is considered a marker of advanced/metastatic disease, I'm sorry to say.
Good luck.
-Dr. West