O Stoma Mia wrote:Welcome to the forum. Here is some information on CEA.
A 2019 overview of CEA (Carcinoembryonic Antigen)
https://www.verywellhealth.com/carcinoembryonic-antigen-cea-797561"In addition, CEA levels may not reflect what is happening with a tumor at the current time.As cancer cells die, CEA is released into the bloodstream and levels can remain elevated for a few weeks after treatment, even if a tumor is responding well.
For example, CEA results may be very high during and after chemotherapy".
Some false positives for CEA (Carcinoembryonic Antigen) elevation
https://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?t=53135&p=419830#p419830
Some previous CEA (Carcinoembryonic Antigen) threads
https://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=65518&p=508688#p508688
Rule-of-thumb for CEA elevation (stable trend)
https://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=65751&p=509756#p509756
Note: The rule of thumb indicates " 5 ng/mL – 9 ng/mL : slighty above normal – most likely a benign inflammation", however, CEA needs to be checked again to see if it is still rising and if so, how fast, and then another CT scan will eventually be needed in about three months' time to see if anything new shows up. They will not initiate any new treatment until they have positive evidence that this rise is likely due to cancer, since CEA elevations can be due to so many other things, and this elevation might just be a temporary, isolated spike due, for example, to a reaction to a Covid-19 jab, to a recent bad chest cold or bad case of gastroenteritis, or any other recent bad infection. Also there is the potential problem that the CT scanner at your hospital might not be sensitive enough to see small metastases or to see thin metastatic scum along the surface of the abdomen (peritoneum). See post below about CT scanner slices:
https://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=65943&p=510735#p510735
So, what I would recommend is the following:
- First, get a followup CEA test done at the same lab at least 3 or 4 weeks from the date of last one. This is to see if the 7.0 ng/ml value was a true elevation or just a spike due to some temporary condition. If the follow-up CEA is now at the same level or even higher, then this could indicate a real increase of unknown origin.
- If the follow-up CEA is still high and increasing, then try to get a new CT scan done (with contrast) at a center that has a high-definition CT scanner with more slices than what your original CT scanner has. This is so that you might be able to detect very small metastases, or peritoneal metastatic slime at an earlier stage than if you just waited around until your local scan center is ready to to do another scan.
- The above steps might not be covered by insurance or supported by your local hospital procedure, so you might have to pay for them yourself.
====
PS: As a Newly Registered User, you are under probation until you have at least 5 to 10 good posts to the main board. Until then, all of your posts have to go through moderator review before they will appear on the main board and that tskes time, so it is in your best interest to post more messages now so that you will have enough posts to be promoted eventually to status of Regular User.
Reference:
https://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=65967&p=510814#p510814
jts wrote:...The thing to worry about is a longer-term trend.
How often do you have your CEA checked, though?
If you are worried about it, you could get it checked more often to watch for a trend...
10christa wrote:in 2020 I had a right side t3 n0 m0 cancer...
--------------
56 female
7/2020 T3 N0M0 right side splenic flexure
Cat scans all clear last one 3/2024
10/2022 Pet scan clear
Moderately differentiated
MSI- H
0/26 lymph nodes
genetic testing no lynch
risk factors
pni and lvi identified
10christa wrote:Hi,
Thank you so much for helping me with other threads. Doing research on the internet sometimes puts me into heavy anxiety and I end up giving myself all kinds of diseases. I was ready to not go back to the cancer center of hospital. I have been through the colon cancer then the scans when there was ground glass nodules, lung dr appointment.. then a breast mri with a sternum lesion, atypical cell and lumpectomy. PET scan...high risk for breast cancer now.
I am getting scans every 6 months for that. Now this again. People who have not been through cancer and the stuff that comes with it have no idea what we go through.
I am grateful I found this site and joined. Thank you!!
Return to “Colon Talk - Colon cancer (colorectal cancer) support forum”
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 37 guests