Hello everyone! I am new to the forum and relatively new to this journey. Here is some background on my situation: in August 2017, I went for my first colonoscopy; doctors found a 1.5 cm semi-peduncolated polyp in my sigmoid and a 0.4 cm sessile polyp in my caecum. The polyp in the sigmoid was positive for cancer. A CT scan and an MRI revealed a solitary metastasis in my liver (approx. 2.2 x 1.7 cm). While the met was resectable upfront, the oncologist recommended three neoadjuvant rounds of CapeOx to learn more about tumor biology; the liver met shrunk to 0.7 cm. Scans of my colon had been inconclusive from the get-go, so there was no change there. On 1/5, colon and liver were successfully resected; there was no cancer in my colon--only a scar; 2/19 nodes came out positive for cancer. On 3/5, exactly two months after surgery, I went back on CapeOx (same dosage as before) to mop up any residual disease.
At some point after the first round of adjuvant CapeOx, my CEA levels jumped. I am aware that CEA levels can rise during chemo, but to the best of my knowledge these rises tend to be small. In my case, CEA levels have been effectively doubling every 4 weeks. On 5/3, at the beginning of my first post-op chemo, they were <.5 (undetectable); on 4/16, at the beginning of my third one, they were 1; less than 3 weeks later, on 5/4, they were 1.9. My onc reminds me that these levels are still within the norm, but I am worried. While my cancer does not express a lot of CEA, this marker appears to be a fairly reliable indicator in my case. It was 4.3 at diagnosis; at the beginning of the second pre-op chemo, it was 1.6; at the beginning of the third one, it was 0.6; after surgery, it was >0.5 (undetectable).
Is there anyone here on the forum who has had a similar experience, with CEA levels exponentially rising during adjuvant chemo? Any suggestions as to what I might/should do at this point? I wonder if going for additional testing or an MRI would be a good idea. My onc seems to believe that the MRI would not reveal anything at this point, and that we would be better served by moving up my next CT scan from July (as originally planned) to June (as soon as I am done with the last round of CapeOx).