5 replies to this topic

[hippychic]

Hi all,

 

In May, I had to change my insurance and my Docs didn't accept my new one. I had a lot of trouble getting a referral, changing over to the new insurance, and getting authorizations for everything. Because of all the changes and miscommunications, I ended up without my Gleevec for almost 6 weeks.  My last BCR/ABL was the first week of March and was 0.084 (IS) and testing was always sent to same lab..Qwest in Virginia.

 

Last week, I saw my new Onc for the second time, and this was the first time we did the Bcr/Abl. I just got the results back. They were sent out to the Mayo clinic Labs and I received the results today through the online medical records system. The first thing I looked for was, of course, the number. Well, no number..Instead I see the statement..".Negative. No BCR/ABL mRNA transcripts were detected." Yay!! However in reading a bit more on the report, I see this was a Qualitative test, so now I'm confused. do I need a Quantitative test? I know you all can relate..my life has revolved, for the last 22 months around this number.. Now I don't have one or need one? I really thought for sure it had gone up since I was without the Gleevec 400mg for so many weeks.

 

Should I call my Dr and ask for the Quantitative test? Can I ask to lower my Gleevec now? And what will the monitoring be like now there is no detection? I've been going for 3 month check ups since December.

 

Thanks!

[Antilogical]

If the Qualitative test is POSITIVE, then a Quantitative test is done to determine the BCR/ABL count.

If the Qualitative test is NEGATIVE, then a Quantitative test is not done, because... NEGATIVE!

 

Congrats!

[Lucas]

antilogical is right. it happened to me. the qualitative test is more sensitive than the quantitative. i had a positive qualitative but a "less than detection limit" quantitative (i had the bcr-abl, but they couldn't give me a number because it was too low). But you have to put in your mind 2 things: 1 - the sensitive of the labs can vary a lot, some can run 5 logs pcr and others just 4 logs; 2 - try to find when the sample was taken and when they ran the pcr. if it was more than 48 after the sample was taken, then the result could be lower than the "real" result. good luck and congratulations!

[gerry]

I originally had quantative results, then got a qualitative result of Positive, but below the reported limits, next test result was negative.

 

Feel free to get a bit excited.

[CML2012]

I posted "question about my pcr and new lab" a few weeks ago. Very similar situation.

[Sneezy12]

Mayo Labs always indicate the date and time the specimen was received, and the time the test was run. Frank