When you search for information you definitely find it, whether you like it or not.
This journey has definitely been enlightening and a never ending abyss of information. The latest is from Dr. Neil McKinney, a naturopathic oncologist in Victoria, British Columbia.
My main concern, as a breast cancer patient, is how can I monitor my progression?
Currently, there are no blood tests that measure your circulating tumour cell for breast cancer. The only way to know if you have a recurrence or a metastasis is through imaging.
And in my opinion, that is too late.
There are however expensive tests that can help, but they range from almost $2000 to well over $3000 upto $4500 CAD per test. And they typically recommendation to be tested every 3 months. I think the math says it all.
Dr. McKinney did have a solution!
He typically follows values from a regular blood test – complete blood count (CBC).
He looks at the ratios of neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes and platelets. Just brilliant!
The neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) should ideally be under 1.88: the lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR) should be ideally over 6, but any trend downward for NLR and upwards for LMR is a positive sign.
Studies look at pre-surgical values as a prognostic tool for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) using a cut off value of 3.0 and 2.5 for NLR.
Calculation your ratios is easy. Create an excel spreadsheet and enter each value as they appear in your CBC.
Divide neutrophils by lymphocytes to obtain your ratio. For example:
| If your neutrophil is 3 รท it by your lymphocyte 1.6 = you get a ratio of 1.88 |
Click here to download an MSExcel worksheet for your ratios. They will calculate for your here.
References and further reading:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5217326/pdf/13058_2016_Article_794.pdf