Just got my CEA tumor marker. It was 44.3, tied to the third highest it's ever been, up from 17.1 last month. Sheee-ittt!
Dang, man!
On the other hand, I am comforted by the CT scan results this week.
Tumor markers can all of a sudden spike when a treatment is working. The CEA in particular measures the amount of dead cancer cells (cancer embryonic cells) in your blood. I started Herceptin between the last tumor marker test and this one. A new treatment - and its effectiveness - could explain the spike in this number. At least, that's how I'm interpreting these results, especially because of the CT scan which showed 1) scars where tumors used to be; 2) stable disease in the bone marrow; 3) shrinking tumors; and 4) no new spots.
Anyway, here's the history:
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
6/7/2010 - 46.3 ng/mL
7/19/2010 - 44.3 ng/mL
8/19/2010 - 50.9 ng/mL
10/05/2010 - 41.6 ng/mL
11/04/2010 - 7.1 ng/mL
12/03/2010 - 3.4 ng/mL
12/30/2010 - 17.1 ng/mL
1/28/2011 - 44.3 ng/mL
Would you call that a "spike"? From 17.1 to 44.3? I think I would ...
Friday, January 28, 2011
SHEEEE - ITTT!
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5 comments:
In the spirit of understatement, may I just say: "Well, THAT stinks."
rat! In lieu of stronger/objectionable wording.
Dee that's great about the CT scans. I know it's hard to focus on that with the CEA markers being so high but I'm crossing everything that the CT scan is the one that's telling the big part of the story which is good news.
@Carver, I think you're right - the CT scan is telling the story that makes sense because the rising tumor marker can be explained in multiple ways - as increased tumor activity or increased cancer death.
But, like J and Caroline said, that stinks and rats and SHEE--ITTT. The rising tumor marker is disconcerting, to say the least.
but I will focus on the CT scan in this case . . .
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