The Colon Club

My wife 45 yrs old just had her 5th round of chemo for recurrent cancer in her pelvic region after resection for colorectal cancer. No mets or spread. Tumor lies within surgical bed. Her CEA had dropped from 181 ng/ml to 167 ng/ml after the first 2 cycles

her last 3 cycles her CEA has been

151 ng/ml
150 ng/ml
152 ng/ml

She is scheduled to have one more round (6th) the CAT two weeks later.

Has anyone ever experienced this? CEA staying in the same range.

A side note is that she has been dealing with an internal infection (abscess and fistula) in the same area since the resection surgery 9 months ago on top of this. Incredibly uncomfortable as her original surgical wound still is not fully healed due to leaking of the abscess.

Thank you in advance.

She scheduled for one more cycle and then CAT.

I'm sure she is feeling terrible with all that going on. What do the surgeon(s) say about surgical wound not healing, abscess and fistula? Could it be contributing to high CEA and did they offer anything to combat wound, abscess and fistula?

Hello,
My oncologist never tested cea during chemo. I have heard others on here mention the same. It seems to me that CEA can be wonky during chemo, so not a reliable test at that time.
ksue