How to spot signs of cancer early?

A patient has metastases in the liver (confirmed via ultrasound and MRI) stemming from colorectal cancer. They had surgery last year and completed six rounds of chemo. Their marker levels hit 150 just ten days ago, when anything under 5 is considered normal.
Just a general question—is there actually a reliable method to confirm you’re officially "cancer-free," or at least that things are shrinking? And if they are shrinking, what kind of timeline are we looking at? Days? Months? Decades? Just a lot of questions swirling around here...
Ultrasounds? Blood work? We are fully prepared to head to a private lab like Quest Diagnostics or Labcorp; we'll do whatever it takes. This is particularly tough because, for the first time, we put our absolute faith in the oncologist. They told us there was no need for constant monitoring since being on chemo essentially keeps everything clear, and to just check back in three months.
Well, it's only been two months, and the metastasis is right there like nothing happened. A total bolt from the blue. Thanks for any insight you can offer.
(And please, feel free to elaborate on this disease. I know it isn't exactly light conversation, but... it feels like everyone you turn to these days is dealing with something similar.)

Rachel Brooks63 said:There isn’t any foolproof way to prove that every single cancer cell or metastasis has been completely wiped out from the body.

Thanks. If you're the one who deleted those three posts I spotted this morning, you might as well have just hit the delete button on your whole account. As for the guy bringing up how carcinogenic chemotherapy is—yeah, true, we've all read the studies—but it feels like the industry tries to sweep that part under the rug. When you're dealing with cancer that has metastasized everywhere, mainstream medicine can feel... questionable, to say the least. It lacks certainty. Of course, people will still opt for chemo just to keep the doctors from taking offense and to ease their own conscience, but this time, we decided to look for some "outside" help too. My thanks again to the forum member who stepped up twice to respond to my post (or rather, my cry for help).

Kate Booth said:Thanks. If you’re the one who deleted those three posts I read this morning, you might as well have just deleted yourself while you were at it. Regarding that guy who posted twice about chemo being carcinogenic—yeah, it’s toxic, we get it—but people tend to shy away from that truth. When you're dealing with advanced cancer where the metastases are everywhere, mainstream medicine feels pretty questionable and, frankly, unreliable. Of course, people go through with the chemo just to keep the doctors from feeling insulted and to ease their own conscience, but this time we decided to look for some "outside" help too... so thanks again to the forum member who stepped up twice to respond to my post (well, my cry for help)

Chemotherapy isn't "carcinogenic." Its entire purpose is to hunt down cancer cells and kill them, or at least stop them from spreading. Unfortunately, no chemo is perfect; it can't distinguish between a tumor cell and a healthy cell, which is why it stunts growth across the board. That's why people lose their hair.
I'll say it again: don't fall for all those snake oil salesmen and "energy healers"—they're just looking to drain your bank account. Stick with modern medicine.

I was reading somewhere that, when you look at the long-term effects, it’s actually carcinogenic.

Look, if we're being real here, without her, you're basically just waiting on cancer to take you out—so talking about "long-term" doesn't even mean much at this point...

Basically, it sounds like you don't actually care whether we can detect cancer early or not—you just want an excuse to trash chemotherapy, right? If that's the case, why not just say so? We've got plenty of other subforums for people who just want to vent...👍

Were some posts deleted? What’s with all this bashing of Kemo? Honestly, thumbs down to you too, Middleman.

Kate Booth said:thumbs up to you too, buddy...

well, you can use this little smiley for that, it's called :2up:...

here’s the plan:

I'm gonna close this thread down and just delete it. then you can start a fresh one where you actually ask what's on your mind—whether it's how doctors diagnose when cancer is gone, or if we're debating how well chemo works, or even talking about alternative treatments...
Sound good?