dropping CA125 numbers

pandagypsy

I just had blood work yesterday before chemo (only 3 more to go after yesterday).  My CA125 is down to 12.5. which my doctor says is my "baseline"......he showed me the graph where that is what I tested at when my catscans came out NED in the past.  I said, great, let's see it go down even lower.  It took a while for me to understand (in fact, it wasn't til later in the day that my husband brought this up and we talked about what it might mean) Dr. says he wants to see the number stay where it's at.......if it keeps dropping now, that will mean that the chemo is still finding cancer cells to attack.  We will definitely question him on this concern next week, does this mean he is preparing us for a continuation of chemo if they continue to drop?  Anyone have any unput on this?

Kaleena

I wouldnt base a drop in your

I wouldnt base a drop in your CA125 as cancer still being found.  Unless you have had a continuous monitoring of your CA125 throughout your life and even then I wouldn't base it on that.   It may or may not be an indicator that there is still cancer, but when a normal CA125 is anything below 30, why would there be concern if your numbers keep dropping.   In fact, if your chemo has an accumulating effect, the numbers may ocntinue to keep dropping until you are finished.   I don't think that they can clearly say that your numbers are abnormal until after you are completely done with chemo and off of it for several months.   This is just my opinion though.   

However, if your CA125 would happen to rise while you are on chemo, then the protocol would be to check the type of chemo being used as it may be ineffective and you may need to change your chemo.   

Anyway, great news on your CA125!

Kathy

pandagypsy

Kaleena said:

I wouldnt base a drop in your

I wouldnt base a drop in your CA125 as cancer still being found.  Unless you have had a continuous monitoring of your CA125 throughout your life and even then I wouldn't base it on that.   It may or may not be an indicator that there is still cancer, but when a normal CA125 is anything below 30, why would there be concern if your numbers keep dropping.   In fact, if your chemo has an accumulating effect, the numbers may ocntinue to keep dropping until you are finished.   I don't think that they can clearly say that your numbers are abnormal until after you are completely done with chemo and off of it for several months.   This is just my opinion though.   

However, if your CA125 would happen to rise while you are on chemo, then the protocol would be to check the type of chemo being used as it may be ineffective and you may need to change your chemo.   

Anyway, great news on your CA125!

Kathy

Kathy, that is just how I was

Kathy, that is just how I was thinking, that if the number goes up during treatment, then the drugs are not working, and that is what I had been picking up from my Dr. thru out treatment,  he would always point out my CA125 and telling me I was having a very good response to treatment.  Now, this was just my husband and myself talking about these latest comments, we will bring this up to the Dr. on my Monday appt. to clarify the meaning.  Maybe it is just how we were hearing it.......I will ask more and more questions!

Linda

Kaleena

pandagypsy said:

Kathy, that is just how I was

Kathy, that is just how I was thinking, that if the number goes up during treatment, then the drugs are not working, and that is what I had been picking up from my Dr. thru out treatment,  he would always point out my CA125 and telling me I was having a very good response to treatment.  Now, this was just my husband and myself talking about these latest comments, we will bring this up to the Dr. on my Monday appt. to clarify the meaning.  Maybe it is just how we were hearing it.......I will ask more and more questions!

Linda

Linda,
Let me know how it

Linda,

Let me know how it goes on Monday.    I will be interested to hear what he has to say about it.   I do remember my CA125 dropped to a 1 and once a 3.    And really they found the cancer after I had a hysterectomy.   A month later I went for staging surgery and they found nothing and then I did chemo.   

However, I did noticed that if I drank a glass of wine the day before, it seemed like my number would go down a bit.   I don't know if that has anything to do with it either.   But the glass of wine sure did help me!   lol

Kathy

Alexandra

CA125 nadir

From what I understand every woman has her own lowest CA125 point she would reach when in remission. It's called nadir or what your doctor called baseline. Once nadir is reached, CA125 will not go any lower, no matter how many extra rounds of chemo you get. There is an empirical relationship between nadir and progression-free survival (PFS). If you google, you will see some research: the lower nadir is within 0-35 interval, the longer remission would be. However all the research applies to the first-line chemo, not to the recurrence, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

This is my CA125 behavior. In 2012 nadir after 4 rounds of Taxol / Carboplatin was 4 (from 1083).

In 2014 (now) nadir after 4 cycles of PARP trial is 3 (from 800).

NoTimeForCancer

Alexandra said:

CA125 nadir

From what I understand every woman has her own lowest CA125 point she would reach when in remission. It's called nadir or what your doctor called baseline. Once nadir is reached, CA125 will not go any lower, no matter how many extra rounds of chemo you get. There is an empirical relationship between nadir and progression-free survival (PFS). If you google, you will see some research: the lower nadir is within 0-35 interval, the longer remission would be. However all the research applies to the first-line chemo, not to the recurrence, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

This is my CA125 behavior. In 2012 nadir after 4 rounds of Taxol / Carboplatin was 4 (from 1083).

In 2014 (now) nadir after 4 cycles of PARP trial is 3 (from 800).

Alexandra, you rock.

Alexandra, you rock.