ca27-29

Hi! I did alot of research on these boards about tumor markers after my mom was diagnosed. Same thing like you, right after chemo her numbers were slighlty elevated. A lot of the ladies reassured me that markers drawn too soon after chemo tend to be a bit high. I dont know if it from the chemo itself or maybe its effects on the body - inflamation? But in my moms case her ca27-29 was at 46 five days after chemo. She was retested six months later and was in the low 20's. Im sure some one who know more about it will pop up soon, but I do believe this happens often and probably has nothing to do with the node!!!!

Yes, just a lot of joint pain and achey bones from arimidex. But no reoccurrence, praise God! She now gets the tumor marker test once a year and it remains in the low 20's. Her radiologist is the one who runs it on her. Her oncologist won't do it, says the test is to unreliable and causes too much anxiety and stress. It sure-does do that!!!

pam - my CA27/29 was normal BEFORE chemo (after surgery) and high, double the high end of normal, AFTER chemo.  It was re-tested two weeks later and had dropped, and on the last test was normal.  Chemo causes a great deal of inflammation throughout the body and this can definitely skew the test.  It is often regarded as an unreliable test in solo, but is used to track ascending or descending trends.

I have tried to find the significance of a tumor marker reading between the lower numbers and the top number of 39.  Exactly what does the number mean and, as long as it is below 39, is there any significance at all.  Meant to ask my MO at last visit, but got sidetracked. Does anyone know?

pam - tumor markers would probably not routinely be done on non-cancer patients so it is hard to say, but the test measures antigens in the blood after a dx.  Anything under the outside limit  is considered "normal" but I am assuming that is normal for a BC patient...  and yes, it was pretty nerve-wracking waiting to see if my level would come down because I am Her2+ with positive nodes, you know where my mind went, right?

Here is a link with a great explanation of the test:

http://www.dslrf.org/breastcancer/content.asp?CATID=27&L2=1&L3=6&L4=0&PID=&sid=132&cid=591

One of the crucial things I have learned is to focus on the old "what can I control, and what can I not control" adage.  I read somewhere a Michael J. Fox quote that basically says if you imagine the worst and then it happens, you have lived it twice.  It is a lot easier to say this than it is to do it though - I still struggle with it, but it does get easier as time goes by.