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CEA ELEVATED

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 10:37 pm
by CancerConqueror
Hello! I am new here and would like to wish everyone a good day.

I have a quick question and hopefully you kind folks can help me out. I finished my chemotherapy for stage IIIB/C colon cancer last month and my oncologist has/had been taking my CEA for the last 2 months (every 2 weeks). The numbers started off at 1.8 but are now at 9. Oncologist wants to schedule a CT scan ASAP. Now a month 1/2 ago I was complaining about headaches and dizziness and my he had me do a CT and PET scan and both came out clean.

I am in panic mode right now because I dread having to deal with a cancer recurrence so soon.

Has anybody had a similar situation? Thank you in advance.

Signature creation

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 1:48 am
by Jacques
I think it would help if you could create a signature so that people here can know more about your situation, particularly the information from your pathology report that would be relevant for discussing local vs remote recurrences: e.g., How many lymph nodes were removed and how many were positive? Were the margins clear? What was the grade of the tumor? What type of tumor was it?, etc.

Here is a template showing the kinds of things to put in your signature:

Signature template:
http://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52681&p=421597#p421597

Here is a link to the signature creation page where you can enter, preview, and Submit your signature
http://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/ucp.php?i=ucp_profile&mode=signature

Re: CEA ELEVATED

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 9:09 am
by jhocno197
CEA can rise for several different reasons, not all of which are cancer.

Re: CEA ELEVATED

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 10:01 am
by dianetavegia
Chemo can cause a false positive CEA and since you've just completed chemo a few weeks ago, this might be the cause. Actually, very few oncs do CEA's during chemo because they're so unreliable.

That being said, a CEA of 10 or more is indicative of active disease. Remember that CEA can rise 4 to 8 months before the cancer can be visualized on a CT or MRI. A PET Scan won't see anything (generally) smaller than 1 cm.

Most normal persons have detectable concentrations of circulating CEA. Approximately 85% of adults have CEA levels less than 2.5 ng/mL, while 95% have levels less than 5.0 ng/mL. CEA levels are slightly higher in men than women. The median level is 3.4 ng/mL in men and 2.5 ug/mL in women. Healthy persons seldom have levels above 10 ng/mL


An MRI is a better modality for liver involvement. You might ask for a CT w/wo of the lungs and an MRI of the abdomen. Also, with the PET scan, did they do a full body including the brain since you were having headaches? CRC only spreads to the brain is around 1% of advanced cases so don't freak out by my asking that. I'm just wondering if he included that area due to your complaints.

The headache and dizziness can be a side effect of FOLFOX and to be very honest, many side effects worsen about 2 months post chemo and some continue to worsen and never go away. I'm 8 years post chemo this coming August and have several issues that got worse over the years.

False positives for elevated CEA

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 1:13 pm
by Jacques
jhocno197 wrote:CEA can rise for several different reasons, not all of which are cancer.

Yes, there are a number of other conditions that can lead to elevated CEA and that can be considered as false positives for cancer tumors. In other words, you would have to eliminate quite a number of other possible causes before you could conclude that the rise was due to cancer.

The article below has a list of some of these conditions in the paragraph on "CarcinoEmbryonic Antigen (CEA)"

http://www.kantrowitz.com/cancerpoints/tumormarkerfalsepositives.html

Re: CEA ELEVATED

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 12:02 pm
by BUD2016
Dealing with elevated CEA right now.

CEA at dx, before surgery, 4 weeks after surgery, before start of chemo and during chemo - fluctuates between 3,8 and 5,2.
CA19-9 always 5 or 6, never higher

March 1st CEA - 5,2
April 12th before 11th treatment - CEA 11,2 :shock:
April 18th (6 days later) - CEA 6,1: AFP low as usual: CA19-9 low as usual, CRP 5,5 (upper normal is 5), LDH in upper normal range

I am sure the doctors will want to wait until early May next scan before making any conclusions. But it is really nerve racking. I am hoping cancer is dead and releasing those dead cancer cells into blood stream and liver is tired to process them quickly enough :D

Re: CEA ELEVATED

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 12:29 pm
by stu
Hi,
My mum's CEA went up towards the end of chemo . Higher than it had ever been. What a fright it was. However the scans were significant shrinkage to the point it was no longer visible. It happened again the next year when she was back on chemo and we dealt with it better. Took a while to settle.
Hope it's good news for both of you.
Stu

Re: CEA ELEVATED

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 2:24 pm
by NZJay
My CEA fluctuated wildly during chemo, which my onc said was likely due to the inflammation caused by the treatments (I suffered chemo induced colitis and kidney failure).

Since finishing chemo in late 2014, my CEA has settled around the 4.0 - 5.0 mark. This is "high normal", but it seems fairly stable.

Be vigilant and ensure you find the cause. But don't assume cancer without proof. Best wishes.