Tumor markings

iowastick

I on my 7th month of Ibrance/Faslodex regime for MBC diagnosed Sept. 2017. I feel great, but my tumor markings continue to rise. My doctor is a real believer of how does the patient feel, and does not order scans routinely. I have tolerated Ibrance very well, 125 mg. Doctor is continuing to closely watch the tumor markings for a trend, which of course, we do not want to see rise. He says he will know when the Ibrance has stopped working, and we will go to a new treatment plan. I have read a lot of controversy regarding the accuracy of tumor markings tests. Is anyone in the same boat?

Husband11

Some women's cancer's give off more tumor markers than others, so comparing numbers between patients is near meaningless. It's more the long term trend that seems to matter, if you see it rising continually, cycle after cycle. Minor fluctuations occur, and from time to time, there can be bigger jumps and falls, seemingly unrelated to progression, that no one seems to know what triggers. Ultimately, a scan confirming what is going on is the only really concrete diagnosis of progression. Not that anyone here has the ability to predict what is going on based on the markers alone, but can you share more information with us, such as what type of metastasis you have, ie where is spread to, what type of tumor marker you are talking about, what its initial numbers were, and what results you have had over the last 7 months?

iowastick

Metastasis to liver, lung, clavicle, bone, and lymph nodes. The tumor markers I am talking about are the CA 27.29 test results. Mine started at 164, went down to 109 in three months, now creeping back up again to 167 this month. I'm scared the Ibrance is not working, but my doctor is not making rush decisions, and is looking more for a trend before changing my meds. I have read there are many factors that affect these markers, and they are not consistent or accurate. But since I have not had a recent scan since November, I am concerned. I trust my doctor to make the right call on this. I am also ER+/PR+, HER2-. Have you been on Ibrance/letrozole since 2016 and had good luck with it?

pajim

Iowastick, you shouldn't change meds on TMs alone. Always a scan. My TMs fluctuate some. Maybe you have a slightly higher tumor burden now. Maybe you don't. I wonder if we have the same oncologist. . .

I can tell you that my onc and I let my TMs rise for several months before we even bother to scan. We do scan more often when the TMs are rising than falling but even with rising TMs often the scans look fine.

One day I asked my onc what makes him change treatments. He said (a) new symptoms (b) bad side-effects, (c) scans showing that something really bad is going to happen. Yours seems to be looking for new symptoms. It's a much more laissez-faire attitude than many oncs have but I look on it as getting many more months out of each treatment. That difference will allow me to live a lot longer.

Husband11

My wife has been on ibrance and letrazole since last summer. Her onc uses cea and Ca15, but hasn't used ca27.29 on my wife. From what I read, it is similar to CA15. My wife was previously on xeloda, and switched to ibrance for less side effects. Initially her tumor markers rose on ibrance, but since then have crept down slightly, although there was a bump in the road a couple of test ago, and it rose again for some reason, but fell over the next two months.