CEA (Carcinoembryonic Antigen) Level After Chemo

[ctunney]

Hi -- Worried about my CEA level. I finished chemo in Oct. '07. For 6 months my CEA level was at 0.0. Since then it has been slowly rising every 3 months or so when I get it checked. First 0.3, then 0.8, 0.9 I waited a while after this, but just got my last result and it is now at 1.8. I don't know what my baseline would have been pre-cancer. I know that when I had cancer -- stage III B rectal -- it was elevated at 16. Everything I see read/hear says under 3 is normal, but I am worried that this is just going to keep rising. What have been others' experience?

[Terry]

In 2007 when I was originally diagnosed with stage II, my CEA was 3.1 which is basicly normal (it's normal up to 4 if your a smoker, yes, I know!). Anyway, after chemo it had gone to to 1.6 at the lowest. In January it was up to 3.8. My onc. said he wasn't worried about it. I was worried so I decided to have my CT early or earlier than the onc. wanted (he said May, I did it March 9th). Well, anyway my cancer was back in lymphnodes and in my lung. I'm not saying yours is back because it is still very normal and things like arthritis and inflammation can make it rise. I'm just saying if it keeps going up tell your onc. you want a CT just to be sure. I know this doesn't put your mind at ease but I don't want to tell you it doesn't mean anything because it's normal and then you wait a year if that's when your next CT is due and it's spread. Maybe you could ask your onc. to run it again in a month and see what it does. Actually, now that I think about it mine was up in January and I asked him to redo it in February and that's when it had doubled and I decided to do my CT early.

[John603]

ctunney,

From what I understand about CEA, the most important thing is the trend over multiple tests. Since yours has been increasing, your oncologist should do a CT or PET/CT scan if you haven't had one recently. Hopefully the CEA is nothing to worry about, but better to get it checked out than to wait.