Thursday, January 28, 2010

Latest tumor marker

I had my blood drawn the other day when I received Herceptin - but my veins didn't want to give up a lot of blood, so they actually didn't do the CEA this month. However, they did do the CA15-3. Anything 33 and under is considered normal. This month? 33.8! It went down a few points from 37.5! I'm trying not to read too much into it as the numbers can fluctuate a few points each time. On the other hand, a downward trend is a good thing! ; )

Here's the CA15-3.

Sept 2007 - 23 U/mL
Jan 2008 - 31 U/mL
Mar 2008 - 36 U/mL
June 2008 - 23 U/mL (started radiation that month)
Aug 2008 - 18 U/mL (week of August 4th)
Sept 2008 - 14.5 U/mL YAAAAAAY!!!
Oct 1 2008 - 19.6 U/mL
Oct 31 2008 - 15.3 U/mL
Nov 28 2008 - 19.5 U/mL
Dec 30 2008 - 16.0 U/mL
Jan 22 2009 - 15.4 U/mL
Mar 2 2009 - 17.8 U/mL
Apr 8 2009 - 19.6 U/mL
May 5 2009 - 18.4 U/mL
June 4 2009 - 19.7 U/mL
July 2 2009 - 22.1 U/mL
Aug 3 2009 - 29.7 U/mL
August 31 2009 - 31.9 U/mL
Oct 3 2009 - 38.7 U/mL
Nov 2 2009 - 36.4 U/mL
Nov 30 2009 - 38.5 U/mL
Dec 28 2009 - 37.5 U/mL
Jan 25 2010 - 33.8 U/mL

I'll post the CEA numbers again, even though it wasn't measured this time, just for consistency's sake. Anything 3.8 and under is "normal".

CEA
1/2008 - 1.2 ng/mL
3/2008 - 0.9 ng/mL
6/2008 - 1.0 ng/mL
8/2008 - 1.1 ng/mL (need to double check this number, but it was in that 0.9 to 1.2 range)
9/2008 - 0.5 ng/mL
10/2008 - 0.9 ng/mL
10/31/2008 - 1.2 ng/mL
11/28/2008 - 1.2 ng/mL
12/30/2008 - 1.1 ng/mL
3/2/2009 - 1.4 ng/mL
4/8/2009 - 1.6 ng/mL
5/5/2009 - 1.9 ng/mL
6/4/2009 - 3.0 ng/mL
7/2/2009 - 3.7 ng/mL
8/3/2009 - 4.2 ng/mL
8/31/2009 - 5.1 ng/mL
10/2/2009 - 5.7 ng/mL (or was it 5.8?)
11/2/2009 - 7.6 ng/mL
11/30/2009 - 10.5 ng/mL
12/28/2009 - 13.2 ng/mL

Hopefully, they test the CEA when they draw blood in six weeks. I'll keep you posted!

2 comments:

Joanna said...

Hi Dee,

My oncologist has decided that she will not order any more MUGA's, but rather rely only on Echocardiograms unless her patient is having symptoms. At the Breast Cancer conference, there was an alarming report that a MUGA has an extraordinary amount of radiation exposure and she feels that if a patient is still able to be active without being symptomatic, the radiation exposure is not justifiable. I have had lots of MUGA's so I certainly did not escape the radiation exposure but I don't need to add to it.

Joanna Moore

Dee said...

I was referred to a cardiologist after my low MUGA scan and it turns out that he doesn't like them - he prefers echocardiograms. So, I had one and I ended up with a normal heart ejection fraction. Echos are less invasive, too.