question about cea

damama24
damama24 Member Posts: 174 Member
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
I read all the time about cea levels of all the wonderful people on this site and am truly happy when the levels go down. But, sometimes I find myself being a little jealous. At diagnosis my cea was 1500. Before the folfox stopped working it had dropped below 400. Has anyone else out there had this high of cea level. Just curious, but don't really want to dwell on the numbers. Hoping the new treatment i will start next week works. Blessings to you all. Deb

Comments

  • Buzzard
    Buzzard Member Posts: 3,043 Member
    #2
    CEA levels are not for everyone.....
    Some are good indicators for some people and some people they tell them nothing...I wouldn't let the numbers bother me...concentrate on the treatment and forget the numbers...and yes during diagnosis and treatment most likely a larger percentage of patients CEA levels were out the roof...Heres to the new treatment being a complete success......Love and Hope, Buzz
  • HollyID
    HollyID Member Posts: 946 Member
    #3
    Buzzard said:

    CEA levels are not for everyone.....
    Some are good indicators for some people and some people they tell them nothing...I wouldn't let the numbers bother me...concentrate on the treatment and forget the numbers...and yes during diagnosis and treatment most likely a larger percentage of patients CEA levels were out the roof...Heres to the new treatment being a complete success......Love and Hope, Buzz

    Buzz is right....
    My CEA numbers go up and down. I don't let them bother me. I have no idea if they're good for me or not because I didn't have one drawn pre-surgery. I don't think my onc even knows if it's good. We talk about it very briefly during conversations, but we concentrate more on my therapy.
  • texr56
    texr56 Member Posts: 2
    #4
    HollyID said:

    Buzz is right....
    My CEA numbers go up and down. I don't let them bother me. I have no idea if they're good for me or not because I didn't have one drawn pre-surgery. I don't think my onc even knows if it's good. We talk about it very briefly during conversations, but we concentrate more on my therapy.

    CEA
    My CEA was 148 upon diagnosis of stage 4 rectal canceer 9 months ago. I am on maintenance chemo now biweekly avastin and oral Xeloda 300 mg daily. @ weeks on -one week off. My CEA has gpme from 5 to 9.9, down to 5.0 again and today it is 13.5. It is not really a number to dwell on unless it goes up drastically in a short period of time.
    I am alo a radiation therapist for 33 years and have studied this marker extensively. The CEA i rather vague but is often viewd as a general indicator of mitotic activity. I agree that concentrating more on therapy at present is the best way to go.
  • 5678dance
    5678dance Member Posts: 39
    #5
    texr56 said:

    CEA
    My CEA was 148 upon diagnosis of stage 4 rectal canceer 9 months ago. I am on maintenance chemo now biweekly avastin and oral Xeloda 300 mg daily. @ weeks on -one week off. My CEA has gpme from 5 to 9.9, down to 5.0 again and today it is 13.5. It is not really a number to dwell on unless it goes up drastically in a short period of time.
    I am alo a radiation therapist for 33 years and have studied this marker extensively. The CEA i rather vague but is often viewd as a general indicator of mitotic activity. I agree that concentrating more on therapy at present is the best way to go.

    Ups & Downs
    My CEA kept going up after getting out of the hospital, after my resectioning. Every time it would go up, my onc kept ordering more blood tests and scans. After everything kept coming back clean, he said that the numbers do keep jumping around on some people. He said it is not a clear indication of cancer itself, and since all the tests came back OK, not to worry about the numbers.

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