CA 27 blood test

phaila

before chemo my ca test came back at 35. Under 38 is negative. Now after my first chemo my score was 41 which makes me in the positive range. Why would my result go up into negative after chemo??? I'm very scare

SpecialK

It is common for CA27/28 done during, or soon after, chemo to go up due to inflammation and tissue damage done by the infused chemo agents and other meds used to mitigate side effects. My CA27/29 was in the expected and acceptable range before chemo, but the number had doubled right by the time I had my last infusion. It took about 3 months for it to return to the "normal" range. Try not to worry.

phaila

omg that's so scary! And crazy

dlb823

Also, your CA27-29 isn't a set, fixed number; there will be some variance, up or down, based on normal inflammation, etc. An increase of 6 pts -- even though 41 is a few points beyond the normal range -- really isn't something to worry about. Oncs watch more for trends, as well as big jumps -- like doubling. As SpecialK said, try not to worry.

sbelizabeth

Phaila, although my onc drew tumor markers during chemo, she warned me that they would be affected by the chemo, and she was right. Before chemo my CA 27-29 was 36, and during chemo it hovered at 42--remarkably similar to yours.

My onc is a believe in following tumor markers, and like dlb823 said, it's the trends she's looking at, not a natural variation of a few points.

phaila

Why do they use them at all?? They're scary

dlb823

phaila, they're just one more tool which, in many cases, can add valuable information to the total picture.