CEA jump , please help

Hi Cw1987 Sending you a big virtual hug. I’ve no personal experience but I’ve attached a link that mentions rises in CEA. I would be tempted to check with the GP that it’s not a typo and should be 1.4 and then discuss getting it checked again maybe?

 Managing your follow up & CEA 

Please let us know how you get on?

Take care

Karen x

Good morning. 

I had open surgery last November (resection) then three months of chemotherapy. 

A few weeks ago I was having some worrying symptoms, so they decided to bring forward my 6 monthly CEA blood test, it has increased slightly, I am booked in for a repeat blood test on the 8th of this month.

Your spouse had a CEA test, 13 weeks after the last test?

The oncologist team told me that the CEA blood test and CT scan is normally every 6 months for five years, unless of course there are problems along the way.

I will let you know the results and what they say if it has increased further.

Warm regards.

Jules.

Thank you Karen I feel like I’ll end up with a heart attack through stress before anything else  x

Thanks Jules, he has his every 3 months here, good luck for your results x

 Cw1987 You could also post in the Ask a Nurse section?

community.macmillan.org.uk/.../ask_a_nurse

Thank you. Good luck to you both, too.

Have you help with your anxiety and stress?  I have a "Ciss" therapist, working with me, she also sees patients spouses. x

Hi Cw1987 
My mum did have a few recurrences but most of them were routine scans . There was a few times her CEA spiked and the protocol was to repeat to see if it had dropped down and rescan early if not . One stayed up for four months despite a clear scan and then dropped .

Its early days and he has to get a feel for how his own CEA behaves .

I would say however the robust after care and scanning allowed anything to be picked up quickly and where possible deal with . It was upsetting to face more intervention but it let her live for 15 years after diagnosis so it’s not always the start of the end.

Take care ,

Court 

Hi Cw1987 and welcome. You might find this post on controlling anxiety and panic helpful: https://community.macmillan.org.uk/cancer_types/bowel-colon-rectum-cancer-forum/f/general/274907/controlling-anxiety-and-panic

Hi did your husband get re-tested my husband had right hemicolectomy JANUARY 2023 cea after 1.3  3 months later started to rise to 9 but of course a delay before they tested again and it was 11 then 15 got a pet scan found recurrence which I knew it was even though they kept saying it could be inflammation or other reasons had new cancer removed just finished Mop up chemo but it is still 6.8 thought it would be 0 of course I am thinking Cancer not all gone or a new Cancer she did say they can rise on Chemo but my thoughts are different