I've been following this board since my mother was diagnosed last December with stage 3 (T3N1b) rectal cancer (she also had 9 non cancerous non resectable polyps in her colon). She had chemoradiation with little response and in May removal of her whole colon, rectum, anus, full hysterectomy and bum reconstruction then started FOLOX a couple months ago. Last week they put her chemo on hold because her pre chemo blood work showed her CEA jumped from 4.4 to 197 since June and they are waiting to do a CT scan to see whats going on and if they need to change her plan. I was wondering is it possible that Chemo can cause your CEA to jump w/o growth or spreading of cancer or other benign reasons for such a large jump (probably wishful thinking)? What is the difference between PET and CT scan?
Thank you.