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Worried about rising CEA levels

Colorectal Cancer | Last Active: Jun 17 9:00pm | Replies (87)

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@merianne42

My CEA level is at 297.0. It began in April after my surgery to remove colon cancer. I have Stage 4 with mets to the live. At that point the CEA was 69.7. It went from that in April, 2022 to 118.5 in November, 2022. Then it jumped to 175.3 in December 6th and December 27 it took a small dive down to 167.4. This week it has jumped to 297.0. I am freaking out! I noticed in my chart that I have CT scan of chest and CT scan of abdomen and pelvic for Feb 20th. I am praying this does not mean there is more cancer. Am I freaking out for no reason? Is this normal? I am currently in chemo treatments, this week made my 18th infusion. I go back tomorrow to get the pump taken off and then three weeks later more chemo. I was getting it every two weeks, but apparently the 5FU has some sort of back order going on and I am now going in every 3 weeks. This is driving me insane!

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Replies to "My CEA level is at 297.0. It began in April after my surgery to remove colon..."

Hi @merianne42, CEA levels are a useful tool, but imperfect. I can imagine that these rising and falling numbers are freaking you out. Fellow members like @pinkygsp and @mcb1368 know about this first hand.

I moved your post to this discussion so you can easily connect with them
- Worried about rising CEA levels https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/cea-levels/

The back order or drug shortage of some chemo drugs doesn't help with the rising anxiety. I get it. How are you doing today?