post whipple strange labs

Posted by larann78 @larann78, 2 days ago

My Mom (65) had her whipple 5 weeks ago. She's already done 6 rounds of chemo. Her CA-19 was 416 when diagnosed and 110 right before the whipple.
Here we are 5 weeks later for her check up with oncology and her CA-19 went up to 113. We thought that was SUPER strange. Her CT showed nothing except a new "micronodule" on her lung that wasn't there before, but the report says "no evidence of metastasis".
We didn't get a chance to discuss results with her oncologist because they whisked Mom off to a brain MRI due to increasingly bad brain fog and balance (gets worse by the week, even since whipple). Brain scan showed "extensive white matter signal abnormalities" but no growths.
Finally...my question. Why would CA-19 stay about the same? The tumor is gone...I would think the number would have drastically gone down.

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happyjack | @happyjack | 2 days ago

I am not a doctor and my knowledge is limited compared to many others on the site. A search for CA 19 results should turn up a lot of results and you can read the other threads. The CA 19 test is not a lock for cancer. Numbers like your moms from what I have read are not even considered high even for when She was diagnosed. When my tumor was found my CA 19 was 1567 and that was not enough on it's own for cancer diagnosis. I had an ultra sound and then 2 CT scans.

There are others on this site that have posted that having the CA 19 blood tests periodically is helpful to see any trends. That is a steady increase or decrease indicate the effectiveness of treatments. There seem to be if I remember correctly other things that can cause the CA 19 to increase. That is why the CA 19 alone is not enough for a cancer or tumor diagnosis even with numbers as high as mine were or even higher.

I think this has been covered a number of times before and maybe why others have not replied. I was waiting for someone else who has more knowledge to reply but as no one did I did not want you to be left with no reply.

Wishing only the best for you and your mom going forward with this.

ashley2235 | @ashley2235 | 1 day ago

My provider at Mayo said they dont even look at CA19 for the first 8 weeks following surgery because it can be elevated with inflammation. She was actually super annoyed the lab drew mine earlier than that because mine of course was higher than pre-surgery and I freaked out. I would not put any stress into the CA-19 for at least a couple months after surgery.