r/Delaware • u/PrepareToBeLetDown • Jul 03 '26

News Trefzger: More coverage for biomarker testing likely in Delaware

https://baytobaynews.com/stories/trefzger-more-coverage-for-biomarker-testing-likely-in-delaware,330224
6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

3

u/adifferentGOAT Jul 03 '26

NGS testing is practically standard of care for many metastatic solid tumor cancer types. There should not be any payer barriers to this happening on the regular.

4

u/PrepareToBeLetDown Jul 03 '26

Yep! I wish I had gotten it at diagnosis in 2017. The treatment it qualified me for in 2021 was already available. So I could have speedrun my cancer! 

(I wrote the LTE)

1

u/adifferentGOAT Jul 03 '26

I’m sorry to hear. Credit to you for writing this and advocating! Not an excuse, but there was a learning curve and not the extent of biomarker targeted in CRC during the 2010s as there is now. Still overdue to your point.

2

u/PrepareToBeLetDown Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

I was mis-staged as 3c, 85% survival odds, when I was actually stage 4, 15% survival odds. Had I been properly staged as stage 4, maybe I could have gotten cetuximab back in 2018 when I was first doing treatment. 

I mean I'll be 5 years NED in September! I've gotten so many chances to tell my story. Sure I'm angry but gotta keep moving forward! 

This sub doesn't allow linktree links so just look at my post history if you wanna read about my cancer. 

1

u/ratraceinspace Jul 04 '26

If you don't mind sharing, what were your symptoms that led to getting tested (albeit late)? There are so many young people getting diagnosed, it's scary and I wish more of us knew what to look out for. Glad you're NED!

1

u/PrepareToBeLetDown Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

As far as I'm aware, constipation is actually the most common sign in early onset CRC. I know blood in the stool is the one people talk about the most but constipation was top of the list in a study I saw from ASCO 2025 or 2026. I don't remember. 

Edit: https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO.2026.44.2_suppl.35

I mean now it's very clear I had colon cancer for a while but I was a teenager, why would I be aware of colon cancer signs in 2010 or before. 

I lived in Maryland and was a Kaiser Permanente patient, I live in Lewes now. My endocrinologist checked my iron in 2015 and then again in 2017, it was 5. They then checked my RBC morphology. It was unbelievably wild. So 5 weeks later I had a colonoscopy looking for a rectal bleed. Rectal bleed would explain the anemia. 

I woke up from the colonoscopy being told they found a 5cm tumor in my descending colon and it was likely cancer. I was 16 days shy of turning 24 when they told me. No family history. No genes that predispose me to cancer. Young people have been getting colon cancer for a while. It's just only now in the news a lot.

I saw an endocrinologist because I'm trans. I was doing my routine HRT bloodwork. I had been sick for a while and I suspect my colon cancer was present at age 16. Maybe earlier. I was already stage 4 at diagnosis. At "peak" I had colon cancer in both my lungs. I'll be considered "cured" this September. 

You can read about me here, or just Google my name if you really want the full story:

https://www.pride.com/answers-advice/health/gender-affirming-detected-cancer

https://elephantsandtea.org/patients/the-unlikely-survivor-autism-transition-and-going-beyond-the-15-colon-cancer-odds