Cancer marker test

Nilelady2016

Hi there

Does any of you use CA15-3 for follow-up

Is it a reliable test or CA27.2

grrifff

my oncologist uses CA15-3 but when I see him Friday I'm going to ask why he uses that and not CA 27 29. First oncologist used CEA but my new MO says thats not as accurate as CA15-3. Last month my CA15-3 was 581, I freaked out. Hoping for lower Friday.

grrifff

http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/7/8/...

This is from 2001. New MO says CEA tumor marker is outdated, seems they knew this 16 years ago.

Dvdsp

my mums onco use ca15-3 and CEA

She is negative for ca15-3 for 9 years

She is CEA positive for 3 years (since stage 4 diagnosis), when her treatmen has failled the cea has gone until 250, last tuesday it was 50

Nilelady2016

my ca15-3 is 266.9

So do they use from single test or should repeat weakly

And does repitition depend on treatmen

grrifff

MO said initial test to get a baseline then hopefully numbers will go down. Test is done monthly when I see him.

Dvdsp

Really test are not realiable, only scans are reliable because some people has negative tests but scanner shows a met. As grrifff has said, onco get a initial test when you have a new treatment, before you have a new cycle he or she repeat the test. My mum's onco told us the first results are not realiable because sometimes when you start a new treatment many cells die and can give you higher results