Your Starting CEA?

Chelsea71

olivers14 said:

Stage 4

I was diagnosed in October 2011 with metatastatic colorectal cancer. My liver is completely covered with cancer lesions. My starting CEA was somewhere in the high 500's. I started 2 weeks later with a chemo regimen, containing Oxaliplatin, Avastin and Xeloda. After half a year my CEA was down to 5. At that time my oncologist stopped the Oxaliplatin (due to accumulation of side effects) and had me only on Avastin and Xeloda until October 2012. At that time my CEA had jumped from 13 to about 140. I was put back on the Oxaliplatin. In January of 2013 I became highly allergic to the Oxaliplatin. 

I was now put on a regimen consisting of Irinotecan, Avastin and Xeloda. This was in February 2013. After 4 treatments I did not show any improvements. Just the opposite. My CEA had gone up to be over 500 again, liver metastases started to grow again. This meant that I did not respond to the current treatment regimen.

My oncologist decided to stop all chemo immediately and to put me on antibodies using Erbitux. I was told that Erbitux will only slow down cancer growth and eventually will help to remove the Irinotecan resistance. After now only 2 treatments with Erbitux my CEA dropped 300 points from the 500's to now 231. My oncologist said that this can happen but he has not seen it very often and that I am more an exception to the rule. I am scheduled for another CT Scan in mid June to see whether the success is not only in the numbers, but hopefully also can be seen by either shrinking or disappearing metastases.

Erbitux is working great for me. By the way I am KRAS wild.

 

Oliver 

Hi Oliver. Welcome aboard.
Hi Oliver. Welcome aboard. Sounds like you are having a great response to your current treatment. Hope it continues. Keep us posted! You should start a new thread and introduce yourself to the board. This might get passed by. Your situation sounds interesting. I'm sure others will want to "meet" you. Best of luck to you.

Chelsea

danker

CEA

My CEA when I was dxed was 1.2.

Was stage 2 bordering on 3  Been NED over 2 yrs.

 Current CEA 0.9

ubcreative

Before treatment

before starting treatment in Jan mine was 740. After 5 rounds of chemo Oxy/Avistan/Xeloda I was 18. I'll find oDi if round 6 knocked it down any further this Tuesday.  

PatchAdams

peterz54 said:

Thank you
to all who responded.

I am trying to get an answer from LabCorp about the accuracy of their tests, and will also ask Quest Diagnostics who does most of my wife's CEAs. When I do I will post.

Labcorp said

Normal errors can range + or -  up to 10%.   

SamT on Colon Club tests his own CEA every 2 weeks from one vial of blood using the Siemen's method. He has a PHD in Chemistry and many published papers. Over 50 liver tumors for about 7 years.  He said EVERY test varies by .5.  Same blood. Same Vial. Same machine. Him doing the test....... 

PatchAdams

unknown but.........

My first CEA was ordered by a gastro group I did not like. They never sent the results to my onc.  However, I do know it was not very high because the gastro said that the reading was a 'good sign'.

Prior to my liver resection, my CEA was 6.4. That was the highest we had ever recorded with the next highest being 4.4.  My lab uses 3.9 as high normal for a female/ non-smoker. 

 

PhillieG

olivers14 said:

Stage 4

I was diagnosed in October 2011 with metatastatic colorectal cancer. My liver is completely covered with cancer lesions. My starting CEA was somewhere in the high 500's. I started 2 weeks later with a chemo regimen, containing Oxaliplatin, Avastin and Xeloda. After half a year my CEA was down to 5. At that time my oncologist stopped the Oxaliplatin (due to accumulation of side effects) and had me only on Avastin and Xeloda until October 2012. At that time my CEA had jumped from 13 to about 140. I was put back on the Oxaliplatin. In January of 2013 I became highly allergic to the Oxaliplatin. 

I was now put on a regimen consisting of Irinotecan, Avastin and Xeloda. This was in February 2013. After 4 treatments I did not show any improvements. Just the opposite. My CEA had gone up to be over 500 again, liver metastases started to grow again. This meant that I did not respond to the current treatment regimen.

My oncologist decided to stop all chemo immediately and to put me on antibodies using Erbitux. I was told that Erbitux will only slow down cancer growth and eventually will help to remove the Irinotecan resistance. After now only 2 treatments with Erbitux my CEA dropped 300 points from the 500's to now 231. My oncologist said that this can happen but he has not seen it very often and that I am more an exception to the rule. I am scheduled for another CT Scan in mid June to see whether the success is not only in the numbers, but hopefully also can be seen by either shrinking or disappearing metastases.

Erbitux is working great for me. By the way I am KRAS wild.

 

Oliver 

CEA

I was DX stage IV a long time ago but my CEA has never risen above 8.4. I've also been Erbitux and Irinotecan for a very long time and have had very good success with it. It's a regimen my oncologist uses often and has had very good results with it.

Glad things are moving in the right direction...

-phil

Momof2plusteentwins

CEA
My CEA prior to surgery was 54. Rectal tumor, 1 liver lesion and 12/23 positive lymph nodes. After surgery and since <0.5.
sandy

bailee2012

cea

My husband was diagnosed stage iv with numerous Mets to liver and lungs.  Cea at dx was 3600.  After 6 mos of folfox down to 20.  Had some setbacks that postponed treatments and cea back to 97.  Got back on track fir treatments and last week it was 77.