CEA level after resection

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sarabeth
sarabeth Member Posts: 1
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
My mom had stage 3 rectal cancer and underwent a low anterior resection at the end of April after 6 weeks of chemo and radiation. At diagnosis her CEA level was 20. Her latest labs show the CEA level to be 3.0 - a bit above normal. She needs to wait another couple of weeks before she can start chemo (Folfox) since her oncologist wants her to put on some more weight and let her cell count improve. Just wondering...have any of you with non-metastic rectal or colon cancer had an elevated CEA level a month or so following surgery surgery?

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  • moniquebar
    moniquebar Member Posts: 57
    #2
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    Hello Sarabeth,

    According to my oncologist a CEA measuring between 0-4 is average for non-smoker.

    Best,
    Monique
  • pamness
    pamness Member Posts: 524 Member
    #3
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    According to my oncologist anything below 3.7 is within the normal range for a non smoker. Also some people just show up higher for some reason. Mine was 7.5 before surgery (3A) and 3.5 after it dropped to 2.5 during chemo and sits between 2.5 and 3. I am almost 1 year ned. They say that CEA levels are a good indicator for some people, not to so good for others. I saw someone on the boards who had a cancer recurrence but a CEA of below 2. By all means talk to your doctor about it. But I don't think it is that odd.

    Pam
  • shmurciakova
    shmurciakova Member Posts: 906 Member
    #4
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    With CEA the main thing is whether it goes up or down over a period of time. My CEA was 1.4 at diagnosis, 40 when I had my liver met, but when I had my 2 lung mets show up it went from less than 0.5 to 0.9. then 1.4 or so, then I think 3.6. So, it is the trend they are looking for, not exact numbers so much.
    I hope that helps.
    -Susan H.
  • sus21an
    sus21an Member Posts: 2
    #5
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    This message could have been written by my daughter as it is exactly identical to my situation. I too had had stage 3 rectal cancer and after chemo and radiation had my surgery at the end of April. Also like your mom my doctor is putting off the next chemo treatments due to my weight loss. Also my last CEA was 3. I ended up with a tempory ileostomy which will be reversed after the four months of chemo so I'm really anxious to get started. Hope you'll keep in touch as to how she is doing.
  • AuthorUnknown
    AuthorUnknown Member Posts: 1,537 Member
    #6
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    Sarabeth,my husband had a liver resection on 3-3-08 and before surgery it was 0.9 and it's lowest was 0.6 for three years then the beast showed up again on the liver and after surgery it sits at 2.0 I'm not happy with it, but our Doctor said it was due to surgery and a infection he is still working on clearing,but for peace of mind we will have him checked in a month to make sure all is well. God Bless you,JB forever

    P.S ct scan on May 21,08 says all is clear.

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