Doctor Ordered CT Scan After CA 125 Went Up

Sara2011
Sara2011 Member Posts: 78 Member
in Ovarian Cancer #1
After my first round of chemo, my CA 125 went up from 170 to 446. They retested me a week later and it went down to 369. I just met with my oncologist on Monday and she is concerned as to why it went up, because she felt like I was too far out from my TAH surgery for that to have influenced the numbers and I hadn't been sick. I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else and what exactly they would be looking for in a new CT scan.

Comments

  • Tina Brown
    Tina Brown Member Posts: 1,036 Member
    #2
    Hi Sara
    Hi Sara
    I have some people say that sometimes the numbers can go up as the tumour is reacting to the chemo and breaking up. As it reacts it breaks up and causes a rise in the numbers. I don't know how true it is I have just heard about it.

    Hope things go well for you

    Tina xx
  • nancygt
    nancygt Member Posts: 86
    #3
    early CA rise
    My onc told me that the Ca 125 rises as growth is just beginning and activity often might not show up on a scan(too small at that point). It can be a very valuable early warning system to take a look. Mine went oner 800 when first diagnosed and came down by 50% during each treatment for first chemo all the way down to 9 at end. At both of my first 2 recurrences, it went up to 200 and scans did show tumors but just barely big enough to show up on scan. This third recurrence, my CA 125 has been hovering around 34 for 5 months - yet regular quarterly CT scanned showed significant tumor growth in my lungs. I guess mine has stopped being a reliable indicator and I hate the loss of my early warning system- when it was 34 a few weeks ago, I was giddy at the thought of 3 months off and totally blindsided this week with the results of the CT scan.
    Have your scan as the combination of the two tells you so much more.

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