healmymom
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Posts:44
How important is it to get markers for a person who was a smoker ?
The first biopsy yielded only enough viable tissue to diagnose adenocarcinoma ... and no marker info.
The drs. seem to think it's no big deal to proceed with chemo in the future having no markers info., since he was smoker, so little chance he would be positive for EGFR, ALK, ROS or PD-L1 so they would just proceed as if he doesn't have any of these.
That thinking shocks me, so wondering this site's opinion.
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Reply # - December 29, 2015, 07:24 AM
Hi,
Hi,
It is true that for a smoker the odds of having an actionable marker such as EGFR or ALK are very low, but although many doctors do not test for them, the trend seems to be to test everyone. The complicating factor here is that testing would require a new biopsy, which introduces more risk and delay, so they may feel that the cost of testing does not justify the limited chance of benefit. Of course, at any point in the future another biopsy could be performed.
JimC
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