I was diagnoised with Appendix cancer in July 2019. I had R Hemicolectomy and all nodes were negative. Classified as IIA. Oncologist offered chemo but said 3-5% reduction in risk of recurrence. He said my risk was about 20% chance of recurrence. I'm in good health and was 73 at the time. He said he ...

The prognosis value of perineural invasion varies depending on the cancer type. I had appendix cancer which was utimately staged like yours at IIA with perineural invasion. My oncologist offered adjuvant chemo but said he would not take it if he were in my shoes. The tiny benefit does not outweigh t...

hwr - I have a question: Your signature says that you had appendix cancer, but it doesn't give the details of what kind of cancer it was. What evidence do you have that your tumor was the same type of cancer as found in colon cancer? Cancer of the appendix differs from colorectal cancer https://www...

You are correct that CEA can detect cancer earlier than CT. And, I suppose if a patient had a CT and it was clear and was due for another in a year but over the next few months CEA showed a trend of increases, the doctor would order scans to see what was going on. It may be nothing; it may be recurr...

https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2018/colorectal-cancer-follow-up-testing I've only had 2 CEA tests. 1st in July, 2019 was 0.9; the 2nd was 1.0 in January, 2020. If it adds value to the surveillance then by all means it should be done, but I'm not convinced it does. It's not ...

I am scheduled to have blood work including CEA every 3 months and CT annually. If a CT can catch a recurrence timely why have the CEA? No doctor would treat based on CEA alone anyway. From what I understand, CEA often produces false positive and causes anxiety while the patient waits for retest and...

I have quarterly visit with my oncologist on May 19. I am scheduled to have comprehensive metabolic panel, CBC, and CEA. I have those labs 15 minutes before our discussion so I suspose I will have to have them this visit and see if i can talk him out of further CEA tests. He doesnt take to kindly to...

Takeaways: CEA can fluctuate considerably in healty individuals Having periodic CEA tests and CT scans as part of surveillance does not provide an advantage over just periodic CT only https://www.koreamed.org/SearchBasic.php?RID=0192LMO/2019.9.3.146&DT=1 https://www.ascopost.com/issues/august-15...

I visited my oncologist on January 6 for my first follow up since appendix cancer found in July followed by scans and R Hemicolectomy. I'm NED and stage 2A. My CEA was 0.9 after the appendix was removed. I thought the CEA was pretty good until I read several articles that basically said a healthy in...

Zx10, my apologies to you and others if I my last post may have been inferred as argumentative. It was intended only to provide the source for some reading material I had referenced in an earlier post, not as a persuasive argument. I appreciate you and others taking the time to respond to my questio...

From MedlinePlus:

"CEA stands for carcinoembryonic antigen. It is a protein found in the tissues of a developing baby. CEA levels normally become very low or disappear after birth. Healthy adults should have very little or no CEA in their body."

I've been doing some more reading about CEA and unless I've misunderstood, CEA in a healthy adult should be zero or very low. What exactly is very low? Since <2.5 is considered normal, does that mean any number from zero to 2.5 is considered very low? So what does my .9 mean? I dont recall any of my...

Thanks for the replies. I was hoping CEA values were looked at more like CBC numbers in that as long as it's in the normal range, nothing to be concerned about, but looks like it's more like PSA in that it can be "normal" but a rising trend may indicate trouble. I guess I'll have to add CE...

I'm having my first follow-up CEA test on January 6. My first and only test was .9 in July. Does CEA remain at its base level unless disease progression, or can it fluctuate a little from time to time for no apparent reason? I'm a non smoker and I've read that <2.5 would be normal for me, but is my ...

I was told basically the same by my oncologist, that my chances of recurrence were about 15-20% if I didnt take chemo, maybe 5% less than that with chemo, although he said there were studies that disagreed with that, and failed to show any benefit. The majority do think there is benefit so it's the ...