The Colon Club

Dear All,

Sorry if my question is dumb. but is possible to have recurrence with normal CEA/ CA19-9? i know anything is possible with the disease, but just want to know from your experience. CEA was never a good marker for my wife to begin with. Her last CEA in May was 1.5 ( I think!) and now it is 1.20. She had her yearly Colonoscopy in August, which was clear. BUt her CT scan showed a 6mm lung nodule in lung base. The Onc ordered another thorax CT and it showed 2 spts, 7mm and 6mm!
They are still not sure what they are, and want to repeat the scan in 2 months time.
Sorry if this question has been asked before, but i would appreciate your input.
Thanks in advance..

Unfortunately, this is quite possible. My daughter's CEA was high (like in the 1000s) when diagnosed, but then after surgery and chemo, it always stayed at 2.5. She did have a peritoneal recurrence and CEA remained low. CA19-9 did elevate and when she was on chemo, it would go down, it was a good marker for her. But it just shows you, everyone is different and your wife could have perfectly normal tumor markers, but still have something going on.

CEA was a good marker for me when I had my liver mets (it spiked and tipped off my onc that something was going on), but when I had lung mets two different times the CEA was normal.

Also, for what it is worth...6mm and 7mm mets are on the small size and you should try not to worry about the two month wait. I've done the wait and see approach three times before and twice it was nothing....third time it was lung mets.

Rob

Thanks Janklo and Rob in PA for your replies. hard to be not obsessive when something shows up on CT. I am mentally prepared for the worst, as my wife only had a bad infection last year around her last CT scan.
My wife thinks otherwise. She thinks they will just go away when she comes back from her home country. She went to see her father, who is also dealing with final stage lungs cancer....... I wish it was that simple!!

My cea and ca 19 have always been normal and still all. It really is all up in the air and confusing. If hers has always been in the normal range the spots could be anything. Its hard to watch and wait...,

cb75 thanks for your reply. i think my wife is following your footsteps... did they do the genetic testing ? my wife has lynch syndrome that explains her cancer at young age.we hope and pray that it is anything but cancer..

Some tumors seem to produce CEA while others don't. I'm not sure the science on the whole matter is settled However it does seem that liver mets tend to cause a CEA rise as the liver damage alone will jump the levels. My cea was normal when I had my colon tumor but jumped after the surgery when the liver mets took off.

Voxx66 wrote:Some tumors seem to produce CEA while others don't. I'm not sure the science on the whole matter is settled However it does seem that liver mets tend to cause a CEA rise as the liver damage alone will jump the levels. My cea was normal when I had my colon tumor but jumped after the surgery when the liver mets took off.

Voxx-

Where did you read that?

Bev

very worried husband wrote:cb75 thanks for your reply. i think my wife is following your footsteps... did they do the genetic testing ? my wife has lynch syndrome that explains her cancer at young age.we hope and pray that it is anything but cancer..

I had genetic testing done after my liver surgery. There was no known genetic link found. However, I do have a family history. This is what lead to my colonoscopy. Otherwise I wouldn't have gone.

I have a CEA of 1.4 and 2 spots on my right lung. one is 8 mm and the other is 3mm. my doctors don't think its anything (partially because of its shape). will follow up with another scan in a few months. I'm trying not to focus on it yet because tomorrow is my LAR surgery.

Bev - I was researching other reasons for CEA increases besides cancer recurrence when my levels jumped. Grasping at straws I guess. Anything that damages the liver can cause elevated CEA levels from Cirrhosis to benign tumors to other types of disease. But again - the usual reason is exactly the one I didn't want it to be.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency ... 003574.htm

There are other sites that probably go into more detail but this is a start.

Oh - found some more info on markers -

http://www.oncolink.org/treatment/artic ... 251&id=296

Thanks Voxx66 for sharing the links.

GreenMonkey! best of luck with your LAR.

Cb75: Coloncancer at young age does show that it has something to do with the genetics.