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Pancreatic Cancer | Last Active: 22 hours ago | Replies (1851)Comment receiving replies
My pathology report said my pancreatic adenocarcinoma was acinar. I have had my CA 19-9 levels tested for the past 7 months by 2 different labs and they have been up and down, with a high of 123 to a low of 30.
No one has said anything about it not being an accurate test. ???
Replies to "My pathology report said my pancreatic adenocarcinoma was acinar. I have had my CA 19-9 levels..."
I have been told and see online that CA19-9 is a general indicator only. My CA 19-9 started >20,000 in late April this year (2025) and dramatically reduced each time tested until reaching a low of 299. Then it has been going back up a bit to 513. My doctor's response was it was trending around 500, again emphasizing the "trend" instead of absolute numbers.
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CA19-9 has never been used as a stand-alone diagnostic test because of a number of pathologies and inflammation causing its elevation. If you have an elevated CA19-9:and acinar, it is likely you have a mixed tumor type with ductal adenocarcinoma. I know of a couple of instances where mixed tumor types were missed on initial morphological examination and when sent to MSKCC for a second review, PDAC was found and the diagnosis changed to mixed PACC and PDAC explaining the presence of an elevated CA19-9.
In those that express CA19-9 with the PDAC form, it can be useful to monitor efficacy of treatment by observing its trend of values. No single point is of value in making a conclusion. It requires several successive measurements.