The Colon Club

Hi there
My spouse had stage 3c. Went through LAR of sigmoid colon and then 11 rounds of folfox.he got into septicemia last round and was admitted .
After everything we went to Mayo Rochester had a PET scan done there .Everything was clear except a light up in the area of rectal anastomoses.We did a colonoscopy thinking it was a recurrence but it was just a stricture at the anastomoses site .The colorectal surgeon dilated it said there was nothing to biopsy .Cea at that time was 2.4
After 3 months now it’s time for first follow up .Cea has increased to 5.6 .rest of blood work was normal
He has symptoms of the stricture again though with gas bloating etc .
Worried about cea rise .Ct scan has been ordered again .has anyone experienced a rise in cea this quick ?

My cea bounces around. I see that this is an old post- hoping things are going ok.

ksue

The main issue with CEA is if it keeps going up. CEA can increase because of many reasons, so if it pops up a bit then goes back down it isn’t much of a worry. But if it keeps going up, then your doctor will want to hunt for what is making it go up.

Good luck! I know CEA is scary, John’s just hit 5.5 so we’re in the same boat. Wait a month, retest, and see where he’s at.

I've had several CEA flares w/nothing found. Here are all my results since dx in 1/2020. All are using the test where above 2.9 is abnormal.
2.50
2.14
1.40
4.11
2.81
2.61
4.37
3.36
2.66
1.60
3.38

CEA can be elevated for many reasons, especially inflammation.
Still, I get terrified every time...like right now with the 3.38 result on 2/4/22.

It makes me feel slightly better that I've had 5 negative ctDNA tests. Highly recommend getting ctDNA tests to have another tool.