For a number of years most parts of Europe have enjoyed a very accurate, safe and non-invasive cancer test. No x-rays, no expensive scans and nothing more unpleasant or dangerous than a blood test. It is known as an AMAS test, or “Anti-Malignin AntibodySerum” test.
Over the past few years this test has gained increasing recognition and popularity in the United States. There is good reason for this.
It is far less expensive than the various scans used to detect cancers. The cost for the test, including drawing the blood sample is approximately $200.00. Compare this to most cancer scans, which cost $1,000.00 an up. Further, it is safe, whereas most scans expose your body to huge doses of radiation, which can of course cause cancer as well as general tissue damage.
At present there is only one lab in the United States that does the actual testing – Onco Lab Inc in Boston. However, you can have the sample drawn and shipped to them by most local labs around the country.
Here are 2 important tips that will help you to get the most accurate results possible: Get the AMAS test sample drawn only by a lab that knows how to pre-process the sample for that test. They need to spin it down a special way and then pack it on ice and FedEx it to OncoLabs. There are plenty of facilities that know how to do this. Call OncoLabs and ask them for the nearest ones to you. You can get their customer service number from their web site when you go there to download the requisition form. While you are asking about the nearest qualified lab you can ask them to send you the appropriate collection kit, which they will do free of charge.
Secondly, always get the sample drawn on a Monday through Thursday, before mid-morning, so that the local lab has plenty of time to prepare it and get it out in that day’s FedEx pickup. Never have it drawn on a Friday or Saturday – you don’t want the sample sitting around in a Fed Ex facility or in a receiving area over the weekend.
To learn more about this test, and to download brochures as well as requisition forms that your physician can sign for you, visit the Onco Lab Inc web site.
To your health!
Jeff Bell
2 Comments
I have heard that this AMAS test is extensively used in Europe and in many other parts of the world. I know that the German cancer clinics use it to confirm cancer and the confirm remissions. Why is it not more extensively used in the U.S.A., and why don’t most health insurers in the U.S. cover it?
Also, I understand that it is very accurate for tumor-forming cancers. Does it also work for luekemia, lymphoma and other cancers that don’t tend to form tumors, at least not until very late stage?
Thanks for all your great information.
Hi Darci,
Thanks for a great question. (Actually, 2 good questions.) You are correct that the AMAS test is used extensively in many parts of the world, especially in countries where cancer care and treatment is far more advanced than that practiced by conventional medicine in the United States of America. It is a simple blood test that looks for cancer markers. It is non-invasive, relatively inexpensive and highly accurate. It is being recognized and used more and more in the United States, but it is still very much under-utilized. Patients and practitioners who are well-informed about options other than those offered by the mainstream practice in the US are demanding this test more and more often. So its use is increasing. The benefits it offers at no risk and low cost are just too compelling for it not to be made more available.
I do not know why health insurers mostly do not cover the AMAS test. (A few do, and more and more are adding it to the list of diagnostics that are covered.) One would think that the health insurers would jump on this since it has the potential to improve the care of those where cancer is either present and under treatment or where it is suspected. And it could save the health insurers great sums of money by providing safe, accurate cancer detection at far lower costs than any of the diagnostics that are currently in use. So I don’t know why they have not demanded that the practioners they reimburse use it much more extensively.
Yes, the AMAS test will work to detect leukemias and other blood-borne, as well as lymphatic cancers. It works for all known cancers, except in very, very late stage, and particularly where there have been a number of cycles of remission and return of cancers. In those patients, the AMAS test is not known to be accurate.
To your health!
Jeff Bell