nickysfight's Cancer Blog

January 8, 2007

CEA Levels Drop from 183 to 44!

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Hi Everyone. I just wanted to pass on the good news about Mom’s CEA levels. She found out the results last week from Dr. Barrington. Her original levels measured on November 22nd were 183 and she was tested again on December 28th. The numbers dropped substantially from 183 to 44 in only 4 weeks. Having a value of 44 is still elevated compared to a non-cancerous individual. Moderate values of CEA are around 5 and a value over 10 is considered high. However, this is still very good news since the values dropped so much and dropped quickly which means Mom is responding well to the treatment. Also, values typically drop to normal after surgery is performed to remove any remaining cancerous tissue.

Mom has one more week of the present chemotherapy treatment (Fluoracil) and then she will switch to a harsher form. That treatment is much different than the Monday through Friday regimen she is presently on. The new chemo will be given for three days and then she gets 10 days off. That will be repeated for two rounds and at that point they will do another 3-D scan to see if the rectal mass has shrunk substantially or hopefully disappeared all together. They will also look at the liver again at this point. After all of this we should know if she needs more chemo or if they will schedule her for surgery or whatever needs to happen next.

If you are interested, you can find out more about CEA tumor markers at http://www.tc-cancer.com/tumormarkers.html