cea?

atrue
atrue Member Posts: 29
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
ok folks need your help what are cea counts? had to have pet scan cea was 3.5 is that bed... help really nervous love and prayers for all

Comments

  • pepebcn
    pepebcn Member Posts: 6,331 Member
    #2
    3.5 is on the normal Range!
    Up to 4 is fine for a non smoker , 5 is still normal for an smoker!
    Good luck with your Pet!
    Hugs!
  • bruins1971
    bruins1971 Member Posts: 227
    #3
    CEA
    It's a tumor marker number normal is less than 3 so you are barely above that. Every tumor is different though some peoples numbers in the thousands.
  • VivianGB
    VivianGB Member Posts: 46
    #4
    Here's sort of a nutshell
    Here's sort of a nutshell explanation of CEA. CEA stands for Carcinoembryonic antigen. It is a protein that is found in the blood with some types of cancer and when you are pregnant. Information that I found differs some as to what is normal, but most websites I looked at say that 2.5 and less is normal for a non-smoker and 5 and less is normal for a smoker.

    I don't know where you stand in your treatment or if you are a smoker or not, but 3.5 sounds pretty good. You sound like the doctor ordered the PET because of your CEA number, if so then it may have shown a slight incline from earlier tests. My oncologist will order a PET scan if I show an incline in my CEA number 3 times in a row.

    Sounds like your doctor is staying on top of things and that's good! Hope all turns out well.

    Viv
  • Lori-S
    Lori-S Member Posts: 1,277 Member
    #5
    atrue
    The CEA numbers aren't always good indicators for everyone. Having a baseline nunmber before any surgeries or treatments is important to finding out if it is a good marker for you. Then it is not how high the number is but it is whether the number is rising or declining. Not all tumors or cancer cells express the same amount of CEA marker. Some people may have cells that express a lot of CEA marker and theirs may be in the thousands while others may have tumors that express a smaller amount. How much is expressed is not the important factor but, as I mentioned before ... whether the marker is showing a trend. That means not just a one time rise because other things can cause a rise such as inflamtory processes or dieases.

    As a baseline (and it differs sometimes with different labs or testing) the normal range is 0-3 for non smokers and 0-5 for smokers. And as I said some labs run those numbers just a little higher for normal ranges. It's looking for a trend that counts. Hope that helps.

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