Worried about rising CEA levels

Posted by Dianne @diannechildress, May 31, 2017

I was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2009. At that time they removed 1/3 of my colon. We did blood screening through the Mayo clinic and they came back that I had a predisposition for polyposis. The cancer had not gotten out of the colon area. Over the next 7 years I was having regular colonoscopies and the doctor removed polyps every time. He recommended that I have the reminder of my colon removed and attache the small intestine to the rectum. That surgery was done January 2016. Up until this surgery was done my CEA levels were in the 3-4 range. This past April I was in to my oncologist for my check-up and my level has increased to 6.1. We redid the test again in 6 weeks which was yesterday and they have increased by 0.3 to 6.4. I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem? I have had my mammogram done and it is clear, I don't have any more colon so it can't be colon cancer, I had a hysterectomy when I was in my 20's so that rules out ovarian cancer. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Colorectal Cancer Support Group.

lida55 | @lida55 | Feb 9 9:15pm

In reply to @nycmusic "@lida55 sometimes an MRI or PET scan can help. Do you do Signatera, a more detailed..." + (show)

Hello, no we didnt. We live in Iran. We dont have access to this signetra
or ctDNA.
Jusr mri ctscan, petscan and cea test and clonoscopy endoscopy😭😭😭😭😭😭

nycmusic | @nycmusic | Feb 9 6:59pm

In reply to @lida55 "Hello Mayo Here i am again. My husband had colon cancer 6 years ago. 5 yeras..." + (show)

@lida55 sometimes an MRI or PET scan can help. Do you do Signatera, a more detailed blood test, or ctDNA ?

joseph1952 | @joseph1952 | Feb 9 3:29pm

And yeaj the cea doesnt tell all.the storu

joseph1952 | @joseph1952 | Feb 9 3:26pm

Hard to get rod of those cells y cea shyrocked till i jad surgery
Now i have pther issues brpugt on from the meds

lida55 | @lida55 | Feb 8 6:05am

Hello Mayo
Here i am again. My husband had colon cancer 6 years ago. 5 yeras after the last chemoterapy. His cea level is increasing and now it is 9.1. His pet 6 months ago was clear and CT 3 months ago was clear. I know we have to do another CT again. But this 9.1 is sign of recurrence????

roywalton | @roywalton | Aug 31, 2024

So sorry to hear this....if your oncologist is guiding your treatment plan with CEA as a primary indicator then you need to find a new oncologist, please

vinodache | @vinodache | Aug 30, 2024

In reply to @vinodache "Thanks a lot for sharing the details @roywalton. Much appreciated. I will check more details on..." + (show)

Hi All, wanted to share that my mothers CEA started dropping from 5th chemo onwards. Which is a positive indicator.
Making sure I share this, so that it might help reduce anxiety since I was super anxious initially,
My mother had a tumour in her colon with CEA 17. After operation, the CEA came to 6.
However, after her first chemo, the CEA level came to 11.
Then on second chemo, the CEA level became 19. We thought this was an issue in test and re-did in two days. But now the CEA was 21.
We got so worried, we decided to not do CEA till the end of her 8 chemo cycle.
However, the Dr asked her to test the Chemo after the 5th cycle and it came to 4.5. Last week her 7th cycle was done, and this week on test the CEA is once again at 4.5
I have read different researches in the interim and according to these researches, the recurrence of cancer increases with CEA being at different level with higher probability from > 15, there are definitely exceptions to this. We are just hoping things stay the way it is and she fully recovers. We are planning to a round of CEA, PET scan and contrast CT one month after he r eight cycle to hopefully confirm things are all good.
I really want to thank all the people in this forum from the bottom of my heart for providing guidance, support and blessings during this time. Thank you so much.

magsbrad | @magsbrad | Aug 25, 2024

In reply to @fatemeh "I finished my chemotherapy course seven months ago (breast cancer with involvement of 3 lymph nodes)..." + (show)

I had a low Cea after surgery for cancer of the sigmoid colon. After 3 years of test ing every 3 months it started to rise slowlly. I was sent for cat scan that didn’t pick up the mets to my liver. Only when I had a pet scan were they spotted. By this time my Cea was87. Because they were spotted so early I’m having surgery in September to remove them. So my advice is please try to get a pet scan to check it out. Im very fortunate that Im in Uk and my treatment is free. Im not sure how much a pet scan costs but it could well be very important. Good luck and God bless.

fatemeh | @fatemeh | Aug 5, 2024

I finished my chemotherapy course seven months ago (breast cancer with involvement of 3 lymph nodes) and I finished radiotherapy five months ago. Now mammography and all tests are good. But now the c.e.a was 9.20. After two weeks, the repetition of this item was 9.17 and again after three days it was 10.48. Colonoscopy, endoscopy and pap smear were good. Except for stomach polyps and inflammation in response to pap smear.
Do you think it is possible for me to have a recurrence of cancer in this short period of time after the treatment?

vinodache | @vinodache | Jun 17, 2024

In reply to @roywalton "An initial rise in CEA level during effective chemotherapy in colorectal cancer patients may not always..." + (show)

Thanks a lot for sharing the details @roywalton. Much appreciated. I will check more details on CTDNA and Signatera tests. Also will go through all the previous threads in detail.