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Interesting case of new lesions, pain, but decreasing CA19-9
Yesterday I went to ER with intense and acute pain in my right side. After CT&US it was found that my previous lesion in liver of 0.9cm which received SBRT radiation in October was now 4x5.7 cm and presented itself as “vague” or “subtle” inferior hepatic lesion but couldn’t be distinguished on US. I had a US because a CT showed possible edema in gallbladder. Also, a new 2.4cm lesion occurred next to the existing lesion. I just received news last Friday that my CA19-9 had decreased from 16 2 weeks ago to 8. This is weird as my tumor marker has been a very good indicator for me in the past. My monocytes yesterday were quite elevated from 2 weeks ago. My oncologist has already gone out of country for holidays and won’t be back for a few weeks. I plan to get a PET scan to verify any new cancerous activity. Also, I might be taking chemo this week and adding cisplatin back into my chemo mix if PET scan is positive. Does this scenario make sense to anyone? My husband thinks maybe the radiation I received in October may have te ei ed scarring and that’s what the scan shows as subtle or vague. But the intense doesn’t in my mind validate his guess.
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Thank you so much!!
Praying for good results!
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2 ReactionsThanks! I’m driving g down to Hoag in 1 hr and asking for a copy and they are very good at oblidging so I’ll know where to go from there.
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2 ReactionsAll of my best wishes for good news for you. And for everyone dealing with cancer,
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1 ReactionWill look forward to hearing your results. Please do share.
If you are in this much pain they need to be on it stat.
Mine was more of a periodic stabbing pain that caused me to grab my side but then went away. No one ever explained how it was caused.
But during one of my surgeries they took out my gall bladder
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1 ReactionThank you, hope you are doing well.
PET scan results are not the end-all and be-all as I originally believed. Mostly this is because not only does the tracer pick up very active glucose related cellular activity, but it also picks up inflammation from tissue that is benign and not malignant in nature. I’m learning as I go along. My PET scan results stated “ large metastasis” in liver at the same location of lesion that was radiated through MRIdean technology in mid-October. The max SUV was 7.0. However, it also lit up at 5.7 my lung nodule that was previously classified as benign following the biopsy in October. This nodule I calculated was due to my severe difficulty breathing due to the slow gas leak over several months from the home furnace that was cracked inside. A strain in breathing can cause a nodule especially if you have a history of interstitial lung disease as I do; my dr told me. MRIdean treatment can basically cause a pseudo lesion and inflammation at the site following radiation- I read this online!! None of my oncologists or their nurse practitioners knew this nor did the radiologist who read the scans. I see the radiologist at city of hope who did the procedure and I’m sure he will explain if this is the case for me!! Im hoping so.
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1 ReactionAdding that max suv was calculated to be 3.5 for my size.
Was hoping gallbladder, but I think as @joiedevivre commented earlier; it is inflammation. Also, through reading online I learned that even a pseudo like lesion can occur in that side of radiation. The pain must be from inflammation. I’ll find out more when I see dr Percy lee who did the MRIdean procedure.
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1 ReactionThat’s the confusing part as markers even decrease by 50%. I was always told that CA19-9 also reflects inflammation in benign situations.