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CEA and other lab tests in colorrectal carcinoma

fmorato
fmorato CSN Member Posts: 1
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
My uncle has had surgery for colonic adenocarcima (T4/N0) yet even in good general condition with chemotherapy, he presents lab test abnormalities: CEA >30 and high SGPT. Anyone knows about this alterations in blood tests? Please reply. Thank you
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Comments

  • pumps2fix
    pumps2fix CSN Member Posts: 5
    #2
    Found this in google
    htt://www.patientcenters.com/colon/news/
    blood_tests.html ... My surgeon had no faith in
    CEAs...I had a T2 with a 1.9...Pumps
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  • joe08536
    joe08536 CSN Member Posts: 7
    #3
    Well, While a CEA of +30 is probably something in order for it to be accurate you need to do alot of other things, like eliminate smoking and/or 2nd hand smoke as this shows up as elevated CEA. While CEA maybe use to some clinicians, I had a tumor the size of an orange (T3,N1-2,M0) and had a CEA at the time of my surgery of something like 1.7, so you can see it's not a sure indicator of anything for me. The running joke in our group of 5 other colon cancer patients was that the rate of grass growth outside was probably a more accirate indicator but if it make the clinician's feel better - we were happy to oblige.

    On the other hand - while getting my chemo, I found that keeping an eye on my hemoglobin and WBC (white blood cells) was key to good tolerance of my chemo meds.
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  • dont
    dont CSN Member Posts: 8
    #4
    I LIKE THE REFERENCE TO GRASS GROWTH OUTSIDE THE WINDOW,THERE MAY BE SOME USEFULL INFORMATION THERE. MY ONCOLOGIST TOLD ME WHEN I QUESTIONED HOW VALID THE CEA TEST WERE,THAT EVEN IF THERE IS NO INDICATION OF CANCER,IT'S BETTER THAN ME HAVING AN ACTIVE CANCER,AND NOT HAVE HAD A TEST!! NO ONE COULD FIND SENSE IN THAT!
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  • Dreamer57
    Dreamer57 CSN Member Posts: 4
    #5
    I'm sure CEA's must mean something in some circumstances, but I know that when I was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer my CEA was 0. My doctors don't even test that anymore, because it obviously doesn't measure anything in my body.
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  • livin
    livin CSN Member Posts: 318 Member
    #6
    Dreamer57 said:

    I'm sure CEA's must mean something in some circumstances, but I know that when I was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer my CEA was 0. My doctors don't even test that anymore, because it obviously doesn't measure anything in my body.

    CEA means nothing to me. I was getting them every month after my Breast Cancer in 1999 all the long I had stage 3 Colon Cancer that was discovered in 2001. I still get them but don't trust them.
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