I am now 9 months in remission after my DLBCL diagnosis and 6 cycles of R-CHOP. I was stage 3.

My question is about ongoing blood tests and their value. There is nothing in my pre-diagnosis numbers that would have sounded alarms, and similarly in my post-treatment numbers. All my numbers have been well inside the normal range. My point is, when I had DLBCL and didn’t know it, my numbers were normal, and post treatment being in remission the same. So what’s the reason to monitor blood counts ?

So, perhaps those in this community who are in the medical profession (or have an opinion): are blood counts really a good barometer? Are the counts lagging indicators or predictors ? Is the purpose of follow up really just that, to make you think the blood tests are of value so you come in and are not lost to follow-up?

Perhaps I never got sick enough to have numbers outside the ranges ? Maybe I’m a bit too cynical, but it seems that CBCs aren’t of value for NHL monitoring.

I will ask my oncologist in December of course. Just wanted to ping the community for your thoughts.

Thanks!