if Ibrance/Letrozole don't keep my tummer markers down

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caall1234
caall1234 Member Posts: 214
edited August 2016 in Stage IV/Metastatic Breast Cancer ONLY

My tummer markers went up again. But pet scan looked good. One little

tiny spot of my back. He said he was going to give it another couple

of months to see what happens. Then if they don;t go down he said

he will put me on new med. What other med are there? I do not want to

go on chem. CA 15-3 went up to 80 from 70

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  • artistatheart
    artistatheart Member Posts: 2,176
    edited July 2016

    Hi caall1234, I just know from other posts here that tumor markers can go up for a lot of different reasons, even when scans are good, and can go back down just as quickly. 10 points is not bad at all. My TM's right now are in the multiple hundreds......

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  • exbrnxgrl
    exbrnxgrl Member Posts: 12,424
    edited July 2016

    Please remember that notall mo's even do tumor markers! If your scans are clear, try not to get too ahead of yourself. I have a single met to my femur and have only been on an AI, though I did have rads to the met to kill it off. Take care.

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  • zarovka
    zarovka Member Posts: 3,607
    edited July 2016

    letrozol often causes a flare reaction (rise in tumor markers) when it is working.

    my tumor markers have gone up while my tumors have shrunk on letrozol/ibrance.

    beyond that, there are so many things, other than growing tumors, that can cause tumor markers to go up. i am finding it hard to understand why they are used at all.

    >Z<

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  • caall1234
    caall1234 Member Posts: 214
    edited July 2016

    Thanks for your response do appreciate it

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  • caall1234
    caall1234 Member Posts: 214
    edited July 2016

    I just read this on the internet

    A tumor marker test may come back high as the result of conditions at the lab where the test was performed; and a perfectly healthy person may show higher than normal levels of tumor marker proteins. In addition, some patients with active cancer produce no tumor markers at all.



    Bottom line: tumor markers aren't a particularly reliable way to spot an early recurrence of cancer. In addition, studies have shown that detecting a recurrence in its earliest stages, as a result of a tumor marker test, has no bearing on survival time, or quality of life. Women whose recurrence was caught later had the same results as women where it was detected earlier.



    And that, in a nutshell, is why the majority of doctors don't monitor tumor markers in breast cancer survivors (unless their initial cancer was particularly aggressive; or it's metastasized). A tumor marker test is yet another test to be administered (time, money, and inconvenience); and it may or may not be accurate.

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  • blainejennifer
    blainejennifer Member Posts: 1,848
    edited July 2016

    TMs are very individual. Mine are diagnostic, but many patients' aren't. Also, because of lab variations, no Onc will recommend a course of therapy based on one TM value. They watch for a trend.

    In my case, when I was first diagnosed with stage 4, my TMs were in the 2,000s. My Onc retested me three times, and imaged me before planning his first line of treatment.

    In casual conversation with my Onc, I have gotten the impression that there are more false negatives than false positives in TM-land. Does anybody have experience with this?

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  • zarovka
    zarovka Member Posts: 3,607
    edited August 2016

    Blaine - I was false negative before I started treatment. I had raging metastatic cancer and normal tumor markers.

    I started treatment. My tumors receded. My tumor markers went up. So I was false positive after treatment. This is so common with letrozol it is almost not a false positive. When letrozol is working, tumor markers often go up.

    >Z<

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  • keetmom
    keetmom Member Posts: 432
    edited August 2016

    So ct Friday (pelvis, cheast abdomine) showed stable...but much can 15.3 is up again.. to 135, was 97 last month, I have been on this 10 months, there us no organ involvement, but soft tissue and bone around L2,

    Are there things that could make it artificially high? If it sat all weekend would it show higher?

    My number has continuously raised since I finished chemo 3.5 years ago....

    Dr said they didn't like to see a pattern of raising but if ct showed stable not sure we would stop now...

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