CEA Numbers Question

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SilentRenegade
SilentRenegade Member Posts: 123
in Colorectal Cancer #1

Question on CEA numbers... In December my dad's CEA was 14. After 2 weeks of radiation on his thyroid it went down to 8.6 in January. At one point, he said it was 125 - this was well over a year ago. He has not been on chemo. Also, even though he has two small mets in his liver, liver function tests come back awesome - even better than mine do (my liver enzymes go up a lot). So how do these CEA numbers work? Note, no CEA numbers have been taken since January or since the brain mets were found.

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  • John23
    John23 Member Posts: 2,122 Member
    edited May 2016 #2
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    CEA numb-ers

    CEA numb-ers

    The CEA reading is only one marker of many that are used to determine the possibility that cancer is surviving; alone, none of the markers mean much.

    If you search for "CEA numbers" here on this forum, you'll locate many posts and threads that deal with experiences of CEA numbers and what they mean or do not mean.

    Sorry to hear of your Dad's plight. Mets to the brain does not sound good. The CEA should be of your least concern right now.

    Make an appointment with your Dad's physicians to talk about his condition. And please keep in mind, that your dad should seek other opinions from physicians not of the same group or organization. It's difficult to "beat" cancer, but one can sometimes out-survive a terrible prognosis using a path different than the one set by one physician or group. He needs to hear other, outside opinions.

    Best wishes to you both,

    John

  • Phil64
    Phil64 Member Posts: 838 Member
    #3
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    For me CEA is a strong

    For me CEA is a strong indicator of liver mets. We only know this because we have tracked CEA levels and they correlate strongly with cancer activity in my liver. If my CEA levels go up we will do MRI to see if there are mets. If CEA is stable we will only do CT scans to monitor. My understanding is that CEA is not always a good marker in everyone. 

    That being said, I agree with John. If there are known mets we will focus on a specific strategy to address the issue. Whether that be chemo or surgery or other option, the focus would be on trying to mitigate the known cancer.

    On a final point my onc says that scans trump CEA. 

  • beaumontdave
    beaumontdave Member Posts: 1,280 Member
    edited May 2016 #4
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    A scary position is scans

    A scary position is scans being clear, but the cea keeps bumping. Since your pop has known mets, the cea is more of a moot point, the battle is with what they know he has.

  • SilentRenegade
    SilentRenegade Member Posts: 123
    #5
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    John23 said:

    CEA numb-ers

    CEA numb-ers

    The CEA reading is only one marker of many that are used to determine the possibility that cancer is surviving; alone, none of the markers mean much.

    If you search for "CEA numbers" here on this forum, you'll locate many posts and threads that deal with experiences of CEA numbers and what they mean or do not mean.

    Sorry to hear of your Dad's plight. Mets to the brain does not sound good. The CEA should be of your least concern right now.

    Make an appointment with your Dad's physicians to talk about his condition. And please keep in mind, that your dad should seek other opinions from physicians not of the same group or organization. It's difficult to "beat" cancer, but one can sometimes out-survive a terrible prognosis using a path different than the one set by one physician or group. He needs to hear other, outside opinions.

    Best wishes to you both,

    John

    We're on the second opinion

    We're on the second opinion and wished we would have gone there in the first place. They are wonderful, they actually said that the brain mets really aren't bad because of size and location. In fact, all of his doctors at this center are so positive it makes me nervous, but calm at the same time. The first place he was going to, the onc didn't want him to do radiation - just chemo, my dad begged and the guy dropped him off there and left. They also ignored a growing thyroid for TWO years - we never knew until it was completely out of control. That's the only reason he ended up at the second place - and they saved his life. First place said the neck was inoperable. Second place got it out. 

  • SilentRenegade
    SilentRenegade Member Posts: 123
    edited May 2016 #6
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    Phil64 said:

    For me CEA is a strong

    For me CEA is a strong indicator of liver mets. We only know this because we have tracked CEA levels and they correlate strongly with cancer activity in my liver. If my CEA levels go up we will do MRI to see if there are mets. If CEA is stable we will only do CT scans to monitor. My understanding is that CEA is not always a good marker in everyone. 

    That being said, I agree with John. If there are known mets we will focus on a specific strategy to address the issue. Whether that be chemo or surgery or other option, the focus would be on trying to mitigate the known cancer.

    On a final point my onc says that scans trump CEA. 

    I'm not sure if it is for him

    I'm not sure if it is for him or not. I think it was for his thyroid cancer, since they drastically dropped after his surgery, but not so much for colon cancer.

  • John23
    John23 Member Posts: 2,122 Member
    #7
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    SilentRenegade said:

    We're on the second opinion

    We're on the second opinion and wished we would have gone there in the first place. They are wonderful, they actually said that the brain mets really aren't bad because of size and location. In fact, all of his doctors at this center are so positive it makes me nervous, but calm at the same time. The first place he was going to, the onc didn't want him to do radiation - just chemo, my dad begged and the guy dropped him off there and left. They also ignored a growing thyroid for TWO years - we never knew until it was completely out of control. That's the only reason he ended up at the second place - and they saved his life. First place said the neck was inoperable. Second place got it out. 

    Other opinions....

    Other opinions....

    We don't see it often here, but it's be great if the facilities were named, good and bad, so that others can make use of the experiences of others.

    Reviews and patient's opinions of care are usually welcomed on the web, and for cancer concerns, I can't think of a better venue than the CSN forum!

    Let's see if a moderator agrees?

    Best of health,

    John

  • SilentRenegade
    SilentRenegade Member Posts: 123
    #8
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    John23 said:

    Other opinions....

    Other opinions....

    We don't see it often here, but it's be great if the facilities were named, good and bad, so that others can make use of the experiences of others.

    Reviews and patient's opinions of care are usually welcomed on the web, and for cancer concerns, I can't think of a better venue than the CSN forum!

    Let's see if a moderator agrees?

    Best of health,

    John

    We are in NJ - he was

    We are in NJ - he was originally going to Southern Oncology in Vineland, and now is going to the University of Pennsylvania. You're correct, it's not often that I see the names of institutions. Surgeon on his thyroid was Dr Fraker (ridiculously good), thyroid oncologist is Dr Broce, neurologist is Dr Lucas, radiation oncologist is Dr Lukens, and the new oncologist has a really crazy name that I can't remember, but he visited my dad when we were up there on time and he had nothing but options for him. They all have options, never no options, and they always allow him to make the choice. 

  • John23
    John23 Member Posts: 2,122 Member
    #9
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    SilentRenegade said:

    We are in NJ - he was

    We are in NJ - he was originally going to Southern Oncology in Vineland, and now is going to the University of Pennsylvania. You're correct, it's not often that I see the names of institutions. Surgeon on his thyroid was Dr Fraker (ridiculously good), thyroid oncologist is Dr Broce, neurologist is Dr Lucas, radiation oncologist is Dr Lukens, and the new oncologist has a really crazy name that I can't remember, but he visited my dad when we were up there on time and he had nothing but options for him. They all have options, never no options, and they always allow him to make the choice. 

    Great info !!!!

    Great info !!!!

    And many, many thanks for sharing that info.

    So many of us wish we could seek "another opinion", but have no idea where to go. If we manage to start a list here, perhaps we can help all those that need help locating other facilities and physicians of merit.

    Be well, my very best wishes to you and yours!

    John

  • SilentRenegade
    SilentRenegade Member Posts: 123
    #10
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    John23 said:

    Great info !!!!

    Great info !!!!

    And many, many thanks for sharing that info.

    So many of us wish we could seek "another opinion", but have no idea where to go. If we manage to start a list here, perhaps we can help all those that need help locating other facilities and physicians of merit.

    Be well, my very best wishes to you and yours!

    John

    I totally agree. There are a

    I totally agree. There are a lot of options in this area... Literally every other commercial is a cancer center commercial of some type... MD Anderson, Penn, Jefferson, Cancer Centers of America, and then they partner with other hospitals as well. My mom sometimes regrets not going "over the bridge" sooner as many NJ people do. 

  • John23
    John23 Member Posts: 2,122 Member
    #11
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    SilentRenegade said:

    I totally agree. There are a

    I totally agree. There are a lot of options in this area... Literally every other commercial is a cancer center commercial of some type... MD Anderson, Penn, Jefferson, Cancer Centers of America, and then they partner with other hospitals as well. My mom sometimes regrets not going "over the bridge" sooner as many NJ people do. 

    I don't blame mom

    I don't blame mom

    You never know when a Governer will shut a bridge down and make it difficult to get back, ehh?

    Be well,

    John

  • SilentRenegade
    SilentRenegade Member Posts: 123
    #12
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    John23 said:

    I don't blame mom

    I don't blame mom

    You never know when a Governer will shut a bridge down and make it difficult to get back, ehh?

    Be well,

    John

    Hahaha, I just saw this.

    Hahaha, I just saw this. Luckily, he only seems to do that in the northern part of the state - hasn't gone after the Philly or DE bridges yet!

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