I have high grade muscle invasive bladder cancer initially thought to be stage 2 after a turbt at a local community based hospital. My new doctors strongly advocate the use of Signatera. (I’m now at a major NY city cancer teaching and research hospital ) My initial Signatera result was 18.0 prior to radical cystectomy surgery to and was restaged post radical cystectomy to stage 3 advanced cancer. I went to non dectectable after 4 cycles of gemcitibine and cisplatin. It stayed that way for 11 months and became detectable again with a number of 0.33. A pet scan showed uptake in one concerning uptake in one lymph node and I was put on padcev and keytruda. I am back to non detectable after 2 cycles of the new drug. I should also say that in no time since initial diagnosis in 2023 did a CT scan show that the cancer had spread outside my bladder. The spread wasn’t confirmed until the pathology post radical cystectomy.
So I would have to say that Signatera is giving my doctors early warning that there is a problem and has been a great tool to guide treatment. It was devastating to hear that the cancer came back this year but the early warning , confirmed with a pet scan gave us a heads start on treatment that might have taken months to show on a CT scan.