CEA 1900

[ASTEPHENS33]

A friend just got this as part of a colon cancer diagnosis that included a CEA 1900. The CT scan did indicate a metastasis to the liver. I was wondering other people's knowledge and experience with this high of a CEA and anything else that you think might be of interest to me. The treatment plan recommended is to do chemo for 3 weeks consisting of Xeloda, Avastin, and Oxiliplatin and then to have surgery. Thanks.

[Marian1961]

I'm sorry you find yourself here, and that your friend has received such difficult news. I am a caregiver, not a patient, but my brother had a starting CEA not too far off your friends. My brother was not deemed resectable at diagnoses and has undergone 6 mos of different chemo types. His CEA has come down quite a bit. I certainly can't give you any medical advice and you will learn that what happens to one person doesn't have much to do with the next, so forget the stats and focus on the individual. There is so much knowledge and experience on this board. The "search" feature up top will help you find information and experience on just about everything related to CRC.

[dianetavegia]

A higher CEA does indicate a more serious disease, according to studies, but many people start off with much higher CEA's and live for quite a while.

How old is your brother?

[Val*pal]

From what I understand, CEA levels are different for everyone. For example, though your friend's reading was 1900, my husband's has never gone higher than 14, but for him that is very high. The oncologist tells us that it's the CEA trends that are informative, rather than individual numbers. Right now, my husband's has thankfully crept down to 8, but that's still high since his original was 3.0.

[evilcolon]

My oncologist often says the overall trend of CEA is more important than the actual #. Everyone is different, I was about 500 at diagnosis, but I know some people that were in the thousands and are now down to less than 1.

[livingbyfaith]

My husbands went way high, dr said some would do that not necessarily an indication of much worsening disease. If it comes down good, that is a good indicator. As others have said you can live a long time with chemo waiting for a cure. My hubby fought 6 years, actually was hernia surgery that ended up killing him. God bless.

[Kris10Dee]

My oncologist often says the overall trend of CEA is more important than the actual #. Everyone is different, I was about 500 at diagnosis, but I know some people that were in the thousands and are now down to less than 1.

My oncologist also said this. And he added (like others have mentioned here) that it varies from patient to patient. My CEA started at 42.5, dropped to 32, jumped to 45.8 (on fifth Folfox6 treatment) and has recently dropped to 2.83. For me, this means my chemo might be working.
Hope this helps a little. ~Kristin