Fr Mike,I am not sure my case is similar to yours. I had blood test every time I visited the oncologist who said it was important. I don't know exactly what the test reflects but one thing for sure is the tumor marker. He told me that when I was diagnosed with cancer, the reading was much higher than normal and kept rising until I completed my treatment. Then the figure started going down and now it is back to the normal level. Every time I had my medical appointment, I asked about the blood result.When my oncologist said'normal", I was relieved. About piercing a needle into my arm, I don't have much feeling with it after going through so many pains in these 2 years.This is just a piece of cake.

Karen stage 4 tonsil cancer diagnosed in 9/01.