blood tests<\/a> usually check things such as white blood cells, kidney and liver function, cholesterol levels, and blood sugar, as well the thyroid and inflammatory markers such as CRP, or C-reactive protein, a chemical produced by the body in response to inflammation.<\/p>\nShe continued: “These are incredibly useful for giving us an overview of your general health but they don\u2019t screen for everything, and they don\u2019t automatically detect cancer.\u2063 Some cancers don\u2019t show any changes on these routine markers at all.<\/p>\n
“Others may show subtle hints, like low haemoglobin (sign of slow blood loss)\u2063, [and] raised inflammatory markers\u2063. But these findings are non-specific meaning they can be caused by many different, far more common conditions.\u2063<\/p>\n
“We can test for tumour markers, but they are not part of routine blood tests\u2063, most are not screening tools\u2063, [and] they are only added when a healthcare professional has a specific reason, based on your symptoms, examination, or medical history\u2063.<\/p>\n
“That\u2019s why normal routine blood tests don\u2019t always mean nothing is happening, and why symptoms always guide the investigations not the other way around.\u2063 Blood tests are a tool, not a crystal ball.”<\/p>\n
TikTok users had a range of reactions in the comments. One said: “The GPs need to understand this misconception! Every time I go with a problem they do bloods says every thing is fine and send me away. If I argue it they look at me like I\u2019m crazy.”<\/p>\n
Another wrote: “What\u2019s the logic behind a ‘routine’ blood test? Why not always test for other matters which might not be suspected at that stage, for completeness and avoidance-of-doubt?”<\/p>\n
And someone else said: “Well then maybe tumour markers should be part of routine blood tests, it’s not rocket science.”<\/p>\n
Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n
Another user wrote: “l always think a blood test is just a way of getting rid of a patient. It comes back with ‘nothing’ on it and the feedback, ‘nothing wrong with you’ and you are left wondering what is wrong?”<\/p>\n
Others shared their own experiences. One said: “I had kidney cancer and all my blood test came back normal. Only diagnosed by an ultrasound and I was sent for that because the doctor thought it was a problem with my gallbladder. Thank god they checked while doing the gallbladder.”<\/p>\n
Another wrote: “My partner had stage 4 bowel cancer and up to the weeks leading up to his passing all his bloods apart from iron and his white blood count during active chemo were fine. Never even elevated CEA (Carcinoembryonic Antigen) levels. Drs always said based on his bloods they wouldn’t have suspected he was as poorly as he was.”<\/p>\n
According to the NHS<\/a>, blood tests are usually carried out to check check your general health, find out if symptoms you’re having are caused by certain conditions, find out if you’re more likely to get a condition, or find out how well a condition is being treated or managed. There are a number of different types of blood test depending on the condition in question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘One of the biggest misconceptions I see as a GP is the belief that if something serious –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[847,102,2960,104,617,56,54,55,2259],"class_list":{"0":"post-280943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-cancer","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-nhs","12":"tag-tiktok","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-viral"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Blood](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_Blood-sample-tube.jpg\")
Blood tests are used to identify a range of conditions (stock image)(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n