Tumor Marker News - Status Quo? & T-cell Naming Contest

Last Thursday, I had blood drawn to measure my blood chemistry and tumor markers. In the end, I am not really sure how to interpret them - one stayed the same, the other went up, my lymph nodes, which seemed to shrink a little, are about the same. So, when I told my parents last night, my dad's response was "status quo". So, yes, maybe it is status quo - no worse, but no better either.

Here are the numbers:

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
Mar 8 2010 - 30.9 U/mL
Apr 22 2010 - 30.0 U/mL

I'll post the CEA numbers. 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
3/8/2010 - 22.9 ng/mL
4/22/2010 - 28.9 ng/mL

My colleague, S., thought that maybe the CA15-3 was giving me reliable news, while my oncologist, last month, thought that the CEA was giving me better news. Dr. K (my oncologist) thought that if you look at the tumor markers in association with my lymph nodes, that might give us a good picture of what's going on. Since the lymph nodes are about the same, then maybe we can assume that things are about the same.

Remember that the CEA measures the amount of "cancer embryonic antigen" - which is basically the amount of dead cancer cells (as I understand it) in your blood. The problem is that they don't know whether it's measuring dead cancer cells that have died as part of their normal life cycle or whether they are dead cancer cells from cancer treatment. There is some research (which I think I posted at some point) that suggests that a "spike" in the CEA, especially after starting a new treatment, is an indication that the treatment is working. Dr. K said, however, that the lymph nodes often start shrinking on their own if a treatment is working. But I'm also thinking that the swollen lymph nodes is the body's way of keeping cancer cells from going elsewhere throughout the body - it's like when you have strep or something, your throat lymph nodes are swollen because they are catching/corralling the bacteria (dead bacteria?). So, might my lymph nodes be swollen because they are catching the dead cancer cells coming off the lungs from the treatment? Or are those cancer cells in my lymph nodes alive? Inquiring minds want to know.

Unfortunately, I don't think anyone in the medical field really knows what's going on in cases like mine. This is when cancer treatment becomes more of an art than a science.

I'm okay with the status quo. I'm not going to get too up in arms about it. I'll wait until June when I get my super-duper-Her2+-cancer-seeking t-cells (white blood cells) back as part of the UW clinical trial. The wikipedia article (which I think I posted) said that a man who got his t-cells back had his tumors disappear within 8 weeks after the t-cell infusion. I think I need to come up with a name for those super-duper-Her2+-cancer-seeking t-cells. Anyone got any ideas? That's it. I'll have a contest. I'll send someone either a colored mandala or I'll create one just for you to whoever I judge to be the winner (and/or I'll post it on Facebook and see which one gets the votes).

Hmmm. I like that idea! : ) Can anyone come up with a good nickname for these super-duper t-cells? You have until midnight on May 2 (next Sunday). (I'm going away for a week-end symposium retreat for work from April 30-May 2). I'll judge the entries on May 3rd. Fun!