A question about cancer diagnosis..

[seeker]

A friend of mine has been ill for over a year. At first they thought she had Parkinson's disease but they has been ruled out now. She has had loads and loads of blood tests and scans, but nothing appears conclusive. She looks to the untrained eye as if she has cancer- she has lost a lot of weight, looks frail, finds it difficult to eat, her balance is steadily getting worse-she can only walk round her own house by holding on to furniture like a cruising child. But surely they would have found it if she did? Or can it take this long to find some cancers?

Apart from some very rare cancers, its usually pretty fast to find them. Unfortunatly neurological conditions can cause all the symptoms you describe, and can be very, very hard to pin down as a precise diagnosis

balance problems might indicate some kind of ataxia - have they investigated that ? (basing this on experience of a friend who in her 20s was diagnosed with Friedrich's Ataxia)

Hard to tell but my friends sister had stomach cancer, she had bloods taken came back clear, MRI clear, stomach biopsy clear (they didn't dig down far enough), was eventually picked up on CT scan. She could barely eat either.
However it may ne a neuro problem but I'd worry that if she can't eat well could be somethig else. Can she get second opinion?