info on elevated CEA

Hi Terri,
Why do you have to wait until July 25 to check out your bloodwork results with a doc? Maybe I am not understanding your post. If Ihave bloodwork done, I have a follow-up appt or call from my doc. I would suggest calling and asking for an appt to check everything out, to talk about your concerns and to have a better handle on things. It is hard to sit and wonder for weeks...you owe it to yourself to figure out what is going on. You will feel so much better. All the best to you and hoping that the slight rise is just bloodtest variation! Take care - Maura

CEA can DEFINITELY go up while on chemo...it happens alot and makes me wonder why they do this test when it obviously causes concern to the patient. The scan will be more dependable so try not to worry about CEA too much...my husband's went up slightly even after chemo was finished. The most recent test shows the CEA level going down again! Not a very reliable test!

I never knew what my original CEA level was until I was 5 weeks into my chemo. I aksed my nurse, and she told me that on the day of my surgery, three days after my cancer was discovered, that it was 4.2. So, at my onc. visit a week later, I asked him about it. He looked in my chart, and said "Your CEA level on the day of your surgery was 6.1" I told him that a week before, the nurse told me that it was 4.2. He looked at my chart again and said...."Hmmmm, I guess they did it twice".....then he went on to tell me that a CEA test wasn't that reliable! Last week, before the first chemo treatment of my second round, they did another CEA. I don't know the results of that one yet. My question is, if a CEA test isn't that reliable, WHY do they do them? Am I worrying about this latest CEA for nothing? Wondering in Michigan.............

Mary.

DK2006 said:

Hi Terri,
I was not on this protocol, but when talking to my oncologist, she said that CEA ALWAYS rises with avastin. (I was not on avastin.) Try not to worry. I also question why they check CEA during chemo. Best wishes, Donna

Terri, Donna, everyone -

CEA is not all there is to say. My CEA has never been anything but "less than 0.5". That was true after surgery and before chemo even though I was known Stage IV. It was true during chemo (with Xeloda / oxaliplatin / Avastin). And it has been true since chemo. My only point is that if you can have a low CEA when you KNOW you have metastatic disease, then I think you can well have an elevating CEA when you are chemo and it may not really mean anything bad.

It's a confusing test, but only one potentially useful piece of the picture. Not sure when your last CT was, but can it be moved up? Seems cruel to wait until the second half of July when perhaps this could be cleared up sooner.

Take care,
Betsy