CEA no longer dropping - at 500 twice.....Question??

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peterz54
peterz54 Member Posts: 341
edited April 2012 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Wife's CEA went to 1200 after 1st treatment, from a pre-chemo of 1800, and quickly bottomed at about 300 in early January and stayed there through early Feb. then no test for 5 weeks. Then two tests at about 500. this last as 500 just before her 9th treatment, a few days ago. This is still a lot higher than most people start with as stage IV from what I gather.

Her extensive liver mets and her lymph mets are responding well to chemo according to ONC, but March PET indicates that colon tumor is more active, and hence may no longer be fully responsive to chemo.

has anyone had a similar situation with such high CEA values, and if so how was it handled?

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  • PhillieG
    PhillieG Member Posts: 4,866 Member
    #2
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    Hi Peter
    As I've noted before, I've never had CEA above 8.4 while being DX with stage IV Colon Cancer and having extensive liver mets. The mets in my colon were not the main issue so I don't know if that has any bearing on the CEA.

    I would think that your wife's CEA being stable is a pretty good sign.
    CEA is a tricky thing.

    Hopefully others can chime in with some similar situations.
    I hope you're wife is doing OK overall
    -phil
  • steved
    steved Member Posts: 834 Member
    #3
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    CEA
    As stated CEA is a tricky thing to use. I too have recurrent cancer but the highest my CEA has been is 14 and despite my cancer progressing it is now 2.4. It is only one indicator of disease progression/ response and in many cases one of the less reliable ones. Using symptoms and scan results is often more accurate.

    I would simply suggest discussing things through with the team and try not to focus too much on single things like CEA- try to take in the wider picture of how your wife is clinically and what the scans are showing. None of it is an exact science which is often a source of confusion and frustrationfor us all.

    steve
  • pepebcn
    pepebcn Member Posts: 6,331 Member
    #4
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    steved said:

    CEA
    As stated CEA is a tricky thing to use. I too have recurrent cancer but the highest my CEA has been is 14 and despite my cancer progressing it is now 2.4. It is only one indicator of disease progression/ response and in many cases one of the less reliable ones. Using symptoms and scan results is often more accurate.

    I would simply suggest discussing things through with the team and try not to focus too much on single things like CEA- try to take in the wider picture of how your wife is clinically and what the scans are showing. None of it is an exact science which is often a source of confusion and frustrationfor us all.

    steve

    My CEA has always been very low even when had a 10 cm
    met on my liver among many other smaller,(3 years ago).Currently my CEA was 34 before starting chemo and 20 after 4 rounds ( just 3 lymph nodes affected ).But fluctuations use to be very common so wouldn't care very much .What is strange is the remission in Mets and the progression in the Colon one, as you know I'm in the same situation in one of my nodes may be some body here can explain us about!
    Hugs!

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