CEA levels raised

Hi Milocup 

Gives you a fright for sure but it can for some people . Chemo itself can cause it to have a surge and can become unreliable for some people during treatment or so we were told . My mum had chemo over two years . It remained elevated till treatment finished and went back down .

It went up around cycle 3 .

Take care ,

Court 

Hi Milocup

I am having same problem just finished my 4th cea level has risen to 6.4 and I  am worried I had right hemi 18 months ago my cea were rising went to 15 had pet scan found cancer in small bowel all removed just finished 4 rounds of adjuvant chemo level 6.4 thought it would be 0 was told it can rise during Chemo

Hi Jkee 

It was always round about third to fourth cycle my mum’s popped up . What chemo was it ?

I know exactly why you are worried but I have not noticed anyone at 0 . It can take a few weeks to level off . Also as time went on my mums CEA actually started to sit higher despite scanning well . It became her new normal. 

So hard not to worry . But it is early days .

Court 

Hi Court nice to hear from you again thankyou I think it was because we notice it go up everytime last year before the recurrence of the cancer so I just expected to drop to 0 without Cancer x

My mum in her 60s sat at 3.2 without cancer . Fast forward to her 70 s and that became nearer 5 . No idea why but she was mainly cancer free throughout her 70s . 
I expected the same too but it never went near that . 
Was it ok at the start of chemo ?

Court 

Hi Milocup

My late husband Jay's CEA levels rose a few months after he went into remission after his operation to get the cancer cut out in January 2022. This got picked up at a follow up appointment with his surgeon 5 months later when they did some blood tests and then they requested another CT Scan which unfortunately confirmed his cancer had returned. Please, please though do not get alarmed at this because the rise in CEA levels  could be a number of things as others have said here but my husband was just very unfortunate as he was also battling Type 2 Diabetes so was fighting on 2 fronts. He was put back on chemotherapy but unfortunately it made him very ill and caused kidney damaged and had to be withdrawn completely. At the end nothing else could be done for him sadly. Hopefully things will get sorted out for you. Best Wishes

Vicky x

Hello Court!

Nice to see you here. Hope you are keeping well. 

Vicky x

 Milocup There’s a good explanation about CEA in this post?

community.macmillan.org.uk/.../managing-your-follow-up-cea