Blood Panel Tests and Cancer

Question:

Which numbers on a blood panel are firm indicators of cancer?  My cat's calcium is .1 over the normal range, which is .5 lower than last year, and she is fighting a yeast skin infection and gingivitis, which caused her neutrophils to go up and her WBC to be .4 over normal range.  All other test numbers are within normal range.  Wouldn't more aspects of a blood panel be affected and her numbers be considerably higher if cancer were present--especially after six years?  She's had the cysts for that long with no indication of decline or illness; I had them fine-needle aspirated last year, and they were observed to be cysts.  But my new vet, who removed them, wants to be sure...however, I have no money to pay for the histopathology.   I understand a biopsy would be the responsible thing to do...but if other factors indicate no cancer, I would like to take those into consideration before I make a final decision.  Any insight you could provide would be helpful.
Thank you, Sandy R.

Response:

Hello Sandy,
Thank you for your inquiry to Holistic Pet Info. There are no absolute “firm indicators” for cancer on bloodwork. Blood panels can be and are often completely normal in animals with cancer. Changes in calcium, lymphocytes or white blood cells may assist a clinician with diagnosis but is rarely exclusively diagnostic. Clinical signs of the animal (lethargy, loss of appetite and enlarged lymph nodes or spleen) histopathology, radiology and ultrasound are the crucial and primary diagnostics for a cancer diagnosis. I’m assuming the cyst aspirates showed no cancerous cells in the fluid; unfortunately, solid tissue around a fluid cyst can contain cancerous cells. This is a tough decision, especially with no other indicators of cancer.

I hope this helps give you sufficient information to make a further decision. Best of luck.

Sincerely,
Colleen Smith DVM,CVA