CEA after surgery

seek@light
seek@light Member Posts: 26
in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hello everyone,

I just registered mainly for my mom. I love the form right after I found it the day before yesterday.

I have one question regarding CEA after surgery. My mom got resection for both rectum and left leaf of liver on 11/01/2011 and just finished two cycles of FOLFOX treatment. However, the CEA was 35.4 right before the second chem and the original readout was 180 before surgery. Her oncologist was really concerned about that and this made me nervous.

Have you seen any case like this? Does it mean that my mom need to get a second surgery?

Thanks a lot,

Gary

Comments

  • mom_2_3
    mom_2_3 Member Posts: 953 Member
    #2
    CEA
    Gary,

    If I interpret your post correctly, your mom's CEA was 180 before surgery. She had surgery 11/1 and then two rounds of Folfox and her CEA is now 35.4. From what I have read CEA has a half-life every 2 weeks subsequent to surgery to remove all current tumors. That would mean that 2 weeks after surgery your mom's CEA would hopefully be about 90. Two weeks later, 45 and so forth. Looks like your mom's numbers are on that path based upon date of blood draw of her recent numbers. My own CEA followed the same pattern as I started out with a 300 number prior to my own liver and colon resection in February 2009. I had read and confirmed with my own doctor that CEA following this half pattern is prognostic and a good sign for remission.

    All the best to you and your mom.
    Amy
  • seek@light
    seek@light Member Posts: 26
    #3
    mom_2_3 said:

    CEA
    Gary,

    If I interpret your post correctly, your mom's CEA was 180 before surgery. She had surgery 11/1 and then two rounds of Folfox and her CEA is now 35.4. From what I have read CEA has a half-life every 2 weeks subsequent to surgery to remove all current tumors. That would mean that 2 weeks after surgery your mom's CEA would hopefully be about 90. Two weeks later, 45 and so forth. Looks like your mom's numbers are on that path based upon date of blood draw of her recent numbers. My own CEA followed the same pattern as I started out with a 300 number prior to my own liver and colon resection in February 2009. I had read and confirmed with my own doctor that CEA following this half pattern is prognostic and a good sign for remission.

    All the best to you and your mom.
    Amy

    Thanks a lot
    Hi Amy,

    Thanks a lot for your kind reply and sharing your personal story. This brings me a lot of hope.

    There might be different sources regarding the half life of CEA. From my Onc and online information (some links copied below), the half life is about 5 days. On the other hand, your encourging story and your sources about the half life bring us up significantly and that shed the light at the tunnel .

    http://www.oncolink.org/experts/article.cfm?c=3&s=15&ss=28&id=1384
    http://jjco.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/2/41.full

    BTW, I am from China and thanks a lot for your patients in reading my confusing post, as you know, I am not a native speaker :)

    Once again, thanks a lot and best to you and your family as well.

    Gary
  • seek@light
    seek@light Member Posts: 26
    #4
    mom_2_3 said:

    CEA
    Gary,

    If I interpret your post correctly, your mom's CEA was 180 before surgery. She had surgery 11/1 and then two rounds of Folfox and her CEA is now 35.4. From what I have read CEA has a half-life every 2 weeks subsequent to surgery to remove all current tumors. That would mean that 2 weeks after surgery your mom's CEA would hopefully be about 90. Two weeks later, 45 and so forth. Looks like your mom's numbers are on that path based upon date of blood draw of her recent numbers. My own CEA followed the same pattern as I started out with a 300 number prior to my own liver and colon resection in February 2009. I had read and confirmed with my own doctor that CEA following this half pattern is prognostic and a good sign for remission.

    All the best to you and your mom.
    Amy

    Thanks a lot
    Hi Amy,

    Thanks a lot for your kind reply and sharing your personal story. This brings me a lot of hope.

    There might be different sources regarding the half life of CEA. From my Onc and online information (some links copied below), the half life is about 5 days. On the other hand, your encourging story and your sources about the half life bring us up significantly and that shed the light at the tunnel .

    http://www.oncolink.org/experts/article.cfm?c=3&s=15&ss=28&id=1384
    http://jjco.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/2/41.full

    BTW, I am from China and thanks a lot for your patience in reading my confusing post, as you know, I am not a native speaker :)

    Once again, thanks a lot and best to you and your family as well.

    Gary
  • seek@light
    seek@light Member Posts: 26
    #5
    mom_2_3 said:

    CEA
    Gary,

    If I interpret your post correctly, your mom's CEA was 180 before surgery. She had surgery 11/1 and then two rounds of Folfox and her CEA is now 35.4. From what I have read CEA has a half-life every 2 weeks subsequent to surgery to remove all current tumors. That would mean that 2 weeks after surgery your mom's CEA would hopefully be about 90. Two weeks later, 45 and so forth. Looks like your mom's numbers are on that path based upon date of blood draw of her recent numbers. My own CEA followed the same pattern as I started out with a 300 number prior to my own liver and colon resection in February 2009. I had read and confirmed with my own doctor that CEA following this half pattern is prognostic and a good sign for remission.

    All the best to you and your mom.
    Amy

    Thanks a lot
    Hi Amy,

    Thanks a lot for your kind reply and sharing your personal story. This brings me a lot of hope.

    There might be different sources regarding the half life of CEA. From my Onc and online information (some links copied below), the half life is about 5 days. On the other hand, your encourging story and your sources about the half life bring us up significantly and that shed the light at the tunnel .

    http://www.oncolink.org/experts/article.cfm?c=3&s=15&ss=28&id=1384
    http://jjco.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/2/41.full

    BTW, I am from China and thanks a lot for your patient in reading my confusing post, as you know, I am not a native speaker :)

    Once again, thanks a lot and best to you and your family as well.

    Gary

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