Stage 4 Bowel / Liver Mets - CEA

simmy20

Hello, hoping someone can confirm if this normal or expected but my Dad has stage 4 Bowel and is currently on his 5th cycle of Chemo.

His CEA was over 24000 before Chemo and the speed at which he has improved is amazing (I have my Dad back!) he is on 9 day cycles of tablets, 4 days rest in-between (40% of dosage due to liver) his CEA is now at 1209 which I know is still critically high and we have a long way to go, but it gives me hope.

Is this a normal speed of reduction and expected if Chemo is working?

The oncologist tried to put my Dad off having any treatment at all but we wanted to try as that just didn’t seem right. This seems to be a good outcome so far..

Any insight gratefully received!

SnapDragon2

Sounds like chemo is working really well.

What tablets are you talking about?

simmy20

He has 30 mins IV of Irinotecan and then Capecitabine chemo in tablet form, a certain dosage twice a day. On top of the chemo he is having immunotherapy, administered same time as the IV. 9 days on and 4 days off then the cycle starts again..