The Colon Club

had colon surgery march 2017... STAGE 2A T3... 32 lymph nodes removed no sign spread...no chemo.. since have had CEA in the range from 5.6 to 7.9... understand false positives CEA test common??

Hi MartinSmith, Welcome to Colon Talk.

I'm not familiar with false positive CEA tests, don't really recall it being discussed here. Can you post your last couple of tests with dates? Any recent CT scans, or other abnormal tests?

Thanks and Best Wishes,
peanut

MartinSmith wrote:had colon surgery march 2017... STAGE 2A T3... 32 lymph nodes removed no sign spread...no chemo.. since have had CEA in the range from 5.6 to 7.9... understand false positives CEA test common??

Fellow 2A....what was your preoperative CEA? Also, in addition to the elevated CEA, did you have any scans? Another person on this forum had an elevated CEA and her onc ordered a scan...it was clear. Hopefully she will chime in.

My husband was also a stage 22, but he did the chemo. He had a baseline CEA that was many time above the normal range. Over five years of checking it every 3 to 6 months, he ranges from 2.8 to 5.7. It's nerve racking to say the least! Our oncologist told us, that at least for him, the important thing was the trend. Up's and downs's didn't concern him, even when it spiked to 5.7 once. It's the constant increase in value that's a concern.

Do you know what you cea was before surgery. Perhaps you have a elevated baseline as well?

Sorry for the CEA stress. I think looking at the list of other causes for cea may help you find the cause. Listing your pre op cea and any scans could help others respond. Let’s us know

I'm kind of in this space right now. CEA went from 3.2 to 4.5 in a month (3.8 and lower is normal). Oncologist ordered a CT scan which came back clean. The increase coincided with much more exercise but I looked around and found a study indicating that 12 weeks of exercise should lower CEA. I'm going to try to get another test in several weeks hoping that it stabilizes or drops. I'm technically NED but this number does get to you.

So far haven't found anyone on the forums remotely close to what I'm going through.

Last year went in for my 3 month routine checkup. Had one in December with a clear scan and CEA at around 5.4 if I recall correctly. I've always been on the high side so that number hasn't been alarming. March things took a different turn. CEA comes in at 15.6. Oncologist thinks this has to be some lab mistake. So we re-ran another test. 16.7. I've already chronicled my testing marathon here before. So just search for my post. To say I've done pretty much all tests under the sun isn't an understatement. Since March of 2017, my CEA has stayed in the teens with the highest number at 20.2 and the lowest was either 11 or 14. Can't remember right now. I had another checkup in May which was my 6 month checkup as my oncologist felt comfortable to push out the frequency of visits. CT scan again was clear except catching a cardiac issue which I'm now being checked for. But my CEA has bounced up again to 17.7. Asked my oncologist if this is going to change anything with my monitoring. He said no and see you in November.

zx10guy wrote:So far haven't found anyone on the forums remotely close to what I'm going through.

Last year went in for my 3 month routine checkup. Had one in December with a clear scan and CEA at around 5.4 if I recall correctly. I've always been on the high side so that number hasn't been alarming. March things took a different turn. CEA comes in at 15.6. Oncologist thinks this has to be some lab mistake. So we re-ran another test. 16.7. I've already chronicled my testing marathon here before. So just search for my post. To say I've done pretty much all tests under the sun isn't an understatement. Since March of 2017, my CEA has stayed in the teens with the highest number at 20.2 and the lowest was either 11 or 14. Can't remember right now. I had another checkup in May which was my 6 month checkup as my oncologist felt comfortable to push out the frequency of visits. CT scan again was clear except catching a cardiac issue which I'm now being checked for. But my CEA has bounced up again to 17.7. Asked my oncologist if this is going to change anything with my monitoring. He said no and see you in November.

Those numbers would drive me up a wall as well.

I don't know about false positives but CEA is a very useful alarm for a range of cancers.
Last year over an 8 month period my CEA went from 4 to 6.2.
My onc at the time sent me off for a PET scan. Result after an EBUS biopsy was Stage 3A NSCLung Cancer.
I am now in remission from this but reflect that without CRC and 10 years of testing I could now be dead.
I would encourage anyone to get a PET scan if there are changes to long stable CEA

Regards
Wayne.

NHMike wrote:

zx10guy wrote:So far haven't found anyone on the forums remotely close to what I'm going through.

Last year went in for my 3 month routine checkup. Had one in December with a clear scan and CEA at around 5.4 if I recall correctly. I've always been on the high side so that number hasn't been alarming. March things took a different turn. CEA comes in at 15.6. Oncologist thinks this has to be some lab mistake. So we re-ran another test. 16.7. I've already chronicled my testing marathon here before. So just search for my post. To say I've done pretty much all tests under the sun isn't an understatement. Since March of 2017, my CEA has stayed in the teens with the highest number at 20.2 and the lowest was either 11 or 14. Can't remember right now. I had another checkup in May which was my 6 month checkup as my oncologist felt comfortable to push out the frequency of visits. CT scan again was clear except catching a cardiac issue which I'm now being checked for. But my CEA has bounced up again to 17.7. Asked my oncologist if this is going to change anything with my monitoring. He said no and see you in November.

Those numbers would drive me up a wall as well.

I'm more or less numb to the numbers after dealing with this situation for over a year.

wwroam wrote:I don't know about false positives but CEA is a very useful alarm for a range of cancers.
Last year over an 8 month period my CEA went from 4 to 6.2.
My onc at the time sent me off for a PET scan. Result after an EBUS biopsy was Stage 3A NSCLung Cancer.
I am now in remission from this but reflect that without CRC and 10 years of testing I could now be dead.
I would encourage anyone to get a PET scan if there are changes to long stable CEA

Regards
Wayne.

I had a PET as well as an MRI. Still found zero. Not discounting how CEA is real useful for many people, but there needs to be a better test.

CEA false positives under 10 can be caused by many things. I had a reading of 5.8 about 16 months ago and asked for my thyroid to be checked. My TSH was really off and after 6 months on levothyroxine, my CEA had dropped more than 50%, well into the normal range. My CEA has always been between 2.9 and 3.4.

Do a web search and you'll find people who had CEA's of over 100 when they had thyroid problems or thyroid cancer.