Ca 27-29 for early breast cancer

Hello @arianna83, I know this is distressing to you but try not to make yourself crazy over the weekend.
As you know since you were diagnosed before, a couple days makes no difference in the diagnosis or the treatment. If there is actually a diagnosis at all.
My doctor saw my tumor markers going up and down so drastically he really wanted me to see a new oncologist, but the one I had was amazing and said he only orders them to see trends since the are pretty unreliable as immediate predictors. When he saw them going up each time he checked for multiple months, then he ordered a scan.
You mentioned that you were on lupron, Exemestane, and kisqali, are you still treating the original diagnosis, or is this a lot of preventative treatment?

Thank you for your reply Chris, yes, Lupron, Exemestane and Kisqali are still for the original diagnosis, stage 2a early breast cancer. Did you say that it happened to you as well to have these markers go up for reasons other than recurrence? It just seems very unlikely to have a recurrence after just about a year with my low oncotype. I attribute it to Kisqali, which has effects similar to chemotherapy, but couldn’t find anything online. Thank you for your encouragement

I am on Anastrozole for 2a early breast cancer also.
After reading your post, arianna83, I am now wondering if I should be on your medication regimen.
To be honest, I don't know exactly what Lupron or Kisqali is or does.
I will research it. Thank you for your input.

My oncologist also does the 27-29 and has since we started. I had surgery (high Ki67 and positive oncotype), chemo and radiation. Went onto anastrazole and now on exemestane. Mine went from 90, bounced around then to 69 after chemo. Stayed there for 4 months then started going up - 75 to 83 to 87 - at which point he ordered pet scan and brain imaging. Both negative and it suddenly dropped back to 69 after 6 months on ai. Has since dropped to 59 and has now been sitting there between 52 and 59 for almost a year. Some people apparently never go back to normal and they don’t know why. However he’ll continue to monitor every 3-6 months unless something changes drastically. So don’t over worry it. Your doctors still keeping an eye one it and there can be fluctuations that mean nothing.

@mistymar thank you very much, your experience was very helpful to hear, l wish you all the best

@briarrose Hello, Lupron, or sometimes Zoladex, are given to premenopausal women to shut down ovaries and induce menopause in order to give an aromatase inhibitor, like anastrozole, that can be given only in post menopausal women. Yes, l think you should talk to your doctor about Kisqali, as it’s proven to reduce estrogen + her2 - breast cancer recurrence by about 28% in all stages. I think if you are stage 1 you might be elegible only if you are high risk (grade 3, high oncotype etc.)

@arianna83 actually I re-read your comment and you said you are 2a, so you can take it

I was diagnosed with Stage 4 triple positive breast cancer Mets bones in August 2014. My oncologist used to use both CA 15-3 and CA 27-29 but we found that the CA 15-3 was unreliable for me because it didn’t change as the CA 27-29 marker did. After my initial chemo, my CA 27-29 was slightly elevated above normal (40s) and would go up and down because it’s not a highly accurate test. After 8 years of maintenance, my CA 27-29 started becoming more erratic but the trend was that it started creeping up. After two years, it had reached 115 but scans didn’t show anything. Finally in October 2024, scans did show that the cancer had returned in my bones. I started chemo shortly afterward and continue to take it. I have one more spot left in my pelvis which is improving. I would definitely pay attention to a rise in tumor markers but don’t stress if possible. They are a nondestructive, minimally intrusive test to watch but they aren’t extremely accurate but can tell a doctor that scans are needed. I hope this helps.

Thank you for describing your experience. May I ask you how you diagnosed the metastasis in 2014 if scans didn’t show anything for years? Thank you

I’m sorry for the confusion. In 2014, I went for a routine mammogram which showed I had breast cancer - this was my initial diagnosis with breast cancer. I then (within a month after my mammogram) had a PET scan that showed it had already metastasized to my bones. I have only had Stage 4 cancer as I never had been diagnosed with any earlier stage cancer prior to 2014. I was 51 years old at the time. The scans I was talking about not showing up anything until 2024 were during the 10 years I was had no evidence of disease, although my tumor marker was slowIy going up. I hope this helps answer your question. Please feel free to get more clarification or ask other questions any time.