CA-125 Results Went Up: Should I be concerned?

My mother was diagnosed with stage 4 Ovarian cancer at the age of 75. Her CA 125 levels was 577 and she had tumors and enlarged lymph nodes all over her thoracic area. After 6 round of Chemo the growth of the tumors stop and started shrinking and her CA 125 level went to 13.9. Over the past 6 months the CA125 levels started rising again. A CT was done and no change in tumor size or lymph nodes. They are now up to 455. I asked her oncologist if they should do a CT of the neck and brain but he said it is very rare that ovarian cancer rarely goes to the brain, but he has offered not any explanation as to why her levels keep rising. I would appreciate any information concerning this matter.

I believe there was a study done for ovarian cancer, treating people whose CA 125 was up but no physical evidence of recurrence, comparing them with people who were not treated until there was physical evidence. Treating early on the basis of CA 125 did not help, at least in terms of mortality. Counterintuitive, but OC seems to be very tricky.
So that's probably why nobody wants to start aggressive treatment on the basis of rising CA 125. The doctors don't want to trade good months where you're physically feeling okay, for bad ones when you're beat up by chemo, if the outcome is no different. I think they don't take into account the misery of knowing something's wrong and not having anything to do about it. I think if this happens to me (I'm in remission right now) I will take myself to a beach or jungle resort before the next scan.

Most oncologists don’t use CA-125 as more than an indicator to look further. They do use it to track the effectiveness of treatments in active patients such as my wife. For what it’s worth, your
20..3 with no other negative indicators is considered being in the normal range

A pet scan and a car scan nothing found

Thank you for taking the time.
They have not liver, or pelvic inflammation. i will ask about them in my next visit.

Thank you

@1morgan, I know this can be very unnerving. It sounds like your doctors are monitoring you closely and have done further investigations with the PET scan and CT scan. It's encouraging that they show nothing. However, your team wants to keep a close eye on the CA-125. I know the changing numbers are increasing your worry. I hope the close monitoring you are getting is helping to give your assurance that they are keeping a careful eye on everything.

A number of conditions that aren't cancerous can cause an elevated CA 125 level, including:
- Endometriosis
- Liver disease
- Menstruation
- Pelvic inflammatory disease
- Pregnancy
- Uterine fibroids

Has your team also monitored your liver function and for pelvic inflammation?

Have they done any scans ?

Doctor says I have to wait till they find out where it is they don't treat a number. that just making me crazy. By four week I just can't image how high its going to be if within teo weeks it went from the seven hundreds to nine hundreds on Friday. Very confused.

I have they say they won't treat a number untill they find out wheres it coming from.

I think its crazy waiting another four weeks to see if anything shows up, it jumps over two hundred points in two weeks waiting just make it worse and am not sure where to go next. I afraid in four weeks it jumps to thousands. What can I do?

Got new results my cancer agent is 925 two weeks before 773 .but both the catscan and pet scan showed nothing .what could that be?
Thank you