Blood Test results.

Hi and congratulations on finishing your chemo/radio. I’m afraid I don’t know anything about this blood test but the fact that the reading is coming down must surely be a good thing. The radiology consultant told me that the chemo/radio carries on working for several weeks after you stop treatment and that is why there can be an 8-10 week break before you have any scans.

Fingers crossed that you have some good results in the new year

Take care

Karen x

Hi,

Best speak to your Oncologist about the results.

But you need to give it more than a week to look at the CEA and CA 19.9 tests.
CEA, at least in my expereince, can raise with chemotherapy, mine went from 1 to 3 during 6 months of 5FU and reduced back to three months later.

Hope this helps!

Ray

Thanks Ray,

unfortunately things work differently here in France. I asked the oncologist what happens to me after i finish the treatment, his response was i was on my own, until the surgeon took over on the 6th January. I went to my GP and he ordered two blood tests up to the 3rd january 2020.

I get a copy of the results over the internet and the GP also gets a copy. I guess the GP would contact me if something was amiss.

The GP included two tests including the 19.9 test that was not on the weekly test by the oncologist.

We just feel lost.

Hi Karen, I sent a thank you response the other day, unfortunately it seems to have disappeared and then I got an email from MacMillan saying that I had sent the response to some place that i should not have, i guess i got a carton jaune.

Ooh vous etes prevenu! I think there may be a karen62 whereas I’m kareno62 so whether the first one is a dormant account or they’ve complained that they’re getting email alerts that don’t relate to them? Not to worry. 

Bonne annee

Karen x

ps please excuse the lack of accents - if I switch my keyboard to French there’s no saying how long it would take me to convert it back again! 

Hi Karen,

It is a bit different with Radio/Chemo prior to surgery versus post-surgery.
Prior to surgery it's all about reducing the size as much as possible to reduce the area needing to be operated on.

At this stage the blood test markers are used as a reference and it's getting you ready for surgery that's the priority.

From what I remember, CEA is the main marker they use for bowel/colon cancer, CA 19.9 is mainly pancreatic but they also get it done for people with bowel cancers.

But neither CEA or CA 19.9 are 100% and results can't be taken in isolation. Lots of things can affect the results outside of cancer. (infections, smoking)
Prior to surgery my CEA was normal (1), once I started chemo it raised to 4.

Right now it’s about getting you to surgery and that’s what you need to focus on (easier said then done I know).
Just know next steps are the same regardless of your CEA/CA 19.9 test results.

Stay strong and let us know how you get on!

Ray