Hi,
I recently had a blood test for monitoring purposes and the results have come back as showing that my CEA level is 5.5.
Is this normal or should this be repeated / monitored?
pre surgery for ovarian cancer in Feb 24, it was 21.
Although this is apparently a tumour marker for bowel cancer?
Thanks
Hi Glass Not Full,
Welcome back to the Online Community here at Macmillan. I’m Kirstine, one of the nurses. It’s understandable you might feel concerned by blood test results, especially after having treatment for cancer. I can see that you have previously posted on here that your initial surgery was successful and that once removed the mass was categorised as low grade which is reassuring. It’s also reassuring that your CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen) is currently much lower than it was last year when you were awaiting surgery.
CEA can be helpful to help build a picture of what’s going on in the body, but it’s not a completely reliable marker. You’re right that it is most often used in diagnoses of colon cancer but can be raised in others too. It can be useful to demonstrate if a known cancer is still growing or has come back, but it can also be raised in quite a number of non-cancer conditions too.
A level of 5.5ng/ml might be considered to be slightly raised but it’s impossible for me to know what is causing that. It seems reasonable to ask your doctor to repeat the blood test in short while, because what is likely to provide the best insight is if there is a pattern of change over time. It may resolve on its own, stay the same, or continue to climb. In that case it might be sensible for them to arrange some checks for you, but please keep in mind it could very well be something completely unrelated to cancer.
You might have read this web page already, but I find it quite useful as a guide to what could be contributing to a raised CEA.
I hope this is helpful.
Kirstine – Macmillan
Cancer Information Nurse Specialist
You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email. Ref KDf/ LiR
