The Colon Club

Hi you guys, onc called to go over bloodwork. He said all is perfect but CEA is up to 8.8. He wanted to stop xeloda until we do a PET scan. I said NO to stopping xeloda for 3-4 weeks. So, continuing with it until scan and see if anything is going on or not. My concerns are why did cea rise but everything else look good? Could it be that I had to slack off PSK until more arrived and some other supplements? Idk. Here are some markers and hopefully you all can help me see something onc and myself are missing maybe.
hgb 12.9 g/dL mch 35% pg mcv 103.4fl platelets 166 (down from 229) rbc 3.54 wbc 7.3 mpv 10.6fl rdw-sd 65.5fl rdw-cv 18%

neutrophils 5.98 lymphocytes .42 10^3/ul neutrophils 82.2% lymphocytes 5.5% (down from 9%) chloride 109 alp 97 (up from 86) alt 14 ast 23

billi total .70 (up from .6) albumin 3.8 cea 8.8 (up 1 pt)

just some thoughts here :

CEA can increase for a WHOLE shitload of reasons NOT related to CRC !
CEA can increase when the chemo IS WORKING and the tumors are dying !
CEA levels can be subject to lab errors so maybe a redo is in order ?

Whenever my docs and I got an "unexpected" result on ANY test ...
a recheck of that test was the first step to follow up.

OH and BTW ....
when posting lab result values, it is always a good idea to also include the lab NORMAL ranges for your own lab reports
While increases and decreases are of value, there are many different reporting and measuring criteria out there,
so to give relevant feedback it is necessary to know the Lab Normal frame of reference.

Cheers and best wishes
CRguy

My husbands CEA was less than .5 when he was diagnosed, and his liver was riddled with mets. The highest it ever was was 10.5 and that was when there were no active tumors and he was on chemo, but nearing the end of a 6 month cycle.

Thanks CRguy for the tip on including normal lab values! And the other thoughts.
KandJ, thank you for sharing your experience with cea rises.

I am very worried for sure. I wish PET could be tomorrow
PET scheduled for 9-25-20!

I see that it was 8.8 the time before that too, and it’s been as high as 11.4. Just wondering if it’s normal for yours to fluctuate. It’s normal for CEA to fluctuate somewhat, and very unlikely to ever be the same.