CEA can apparently spike for a number of non cancer related reasons. A friend of mine has been cancer free for 7 years but her CEA was always up and down. She has some lung infections due to damage from radiation, which her docs at Dana Farber think could be the cause. They have stopped monitoring ...

The search is on for a superior testing method based on individual tumor DNA, which is the way to go. I found this quote from Dr. Axel Grothey, a well known oncologist at the Mayo Clinic: “ Dr. Grothey says he considers CEA to be a valuable surveillance test, but that research into better tests is ...

Hi , I understand your stress very well, when my mother’s CEA spiked to 40 just three months after finishing chemo, your post saved me from nervous breakdown ! Now I hope I can help you to calm down.my mom was diagnosed with stage 3b rectal cancer(recto sigmoid junction ) in July 2017.After first s...

I too always get my scan reports way before my oncologist lets me know the results. At the scan facility I use, I always schedule my appointments in the morning. By doing this, I've always been able to get my scan results by the afternoon....some times sooner. The MRI I had done recently was a bit a...

Here's a link to the medical article talking about that Taiwanese woman who had extreme spikes with her CEA numbers yet did not develop any signs of cancer after 5 years of monitoring: https://academic.oup.com/jjco/article/36/12/811/874390 It appears you can also download the article in PDF format f...

I don't think you mentioned any thoracic scans. have they looked at you lungs? You really have been through the wringer. I hope things stabilize. Yes. All my CTs with my current oncologist are chest, abdomen, and pelvis CTs. The MRI I had done did not look at my thorax/chest. The PET I had done wen...

Thanks Claudine. I don't know what my doctor thinks now with my recent CEA being as high as it is. He did bring up all the stress I've been under and that could be a contributor to why it's so high. But before my CEA shot up to 26 and beyond, he felt my then high CEA was not cancer related. He said ...

Do you have the actual radiology report? If not, you need to get it. It'll tell you what the uptake value is of that spot called SUV. If you don't have the previous PET report, I would also get that too. Yes, I have the actual report. I 'm not brave enough to look at the actual scans though. When I...

The original site is actually the recto-sigmoid area, and it's very scar-tissued due to radiation. Not sure how easy it will be to surgically remove. @NHMike, they don't know the size because it was a PET scan and it only shows uptake. I think she said the uptake was a bit higher than my PET a year...

Thanks for posting this. My CEA keeps going up (see my other thread) and they think they see recurrence at my original surgical site, but my colonoscopy a month ago was clear so I still wonder. I have been working in a stressful job, although that's not near the amount of stress you've experienced....

Despite the craziness with my CEA numbers for the past almost 3 years (I created a recent thread about this), with the recent scans I had which were CT, MRI, and PET/CT showing all clear, I'll be 7 years NED from stage3b colon cancer of my decending colon next month. Although I had a new primary in ...

I some times wonder about this too if there is peritoneal spread. But being over 3 years out from my appendix cancer and it being stage 0, I'm just going to roll with the assumption this isn't the situation I'm dealing with.

Thanks radnyc. Yes, things have been real tough for me for a while. Another stress I left out was I changed jobs twice during this crazy CEA period. Something I forgot to mention which popped up on my 4 recent CT scans was a lesion in my liver. It was classed as a granuloma. It first appeared when m...

I've been reading through recent threads about CEA increases people have experienced. I waited to say anything as I was waiting on going through the entire gamut of tests. I also felt it would be good to have my own thread dedicated to this. If you do a search on here, a while ago I put up a thread ...

Thank you stu. Yes, lots for me to process. Some times I wonder how I'm still standing with all the stress. I'm pretty sure I've posted these on here in a different thread but since this one is more recent, I'll put them here too: https://live.staticflickr.com/1859/42707273810_a9861924a1_z.jpg https...