CA 27-29 and CA 15-3

marianella7
marianella7 Member Posts: 6
edited April 2018 in Waiting for Test Results

Is anyone getting these tested monthly?

I had them tested Oct, Jan and March, and I'm worried, bc CA 27-29 has been increasing each time by 1 point or 2. So if Oct it was 26, then Jan was 27 and March 28... something like that, I don't remember them now. CA 15-3 was 14.8 then 14, and now 15 or 16?!

been reading that tumor marker tests aren't that great and any side factor can change the levels, but I haven't really been doing anything differently from Jan-March, except that I took some advil the day before my March test.

Anyone had similar results? Maybe I'm overthinking bc they are still in normal range and certainly not outrageous like other people I've read who are over 100, but still freaking out.

help someone?

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Comments

  • Recap
    Recap Member Posts: 120
    edited April 2018

    I don't know what the numbers mean but to me they indicate the lab is counting something that is very very tiny that can only be viewed microscopically. Tiny changes in numbers could just be different humans doing the counting (I don't know whether computers can count this kind of thing.) I know my CA125 test varied by ~10 from one year to the next-sometimes up, sometimes down.

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  • illimae
    illimae Member Posts: 5,710
    edited April 2018

    I’ve had the CA 15-3 a few times in the past 5 months and the numbers were 12,17, then 19. I was concerned too but read that many things can affect the results, a common one being inflammation. My MO assured me that readings in the normal range are not cause for concern and even when significantly elevated over a period of time, scan are the true identifiers of activity.

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  • SpecialK
    SpecialK Member Posts: 16,486
    edited April 2018

    Just like your temperature, CBC, or blood pressure vary slightly every time they are taken, so do these tumor markers. Oncologists are looking for larger upward trends. Your results for both the CA27/29 and the CA15-3 are within normal reference range for these tests. Neither are above the upper limit for the reference range, which for a CA27/29 is 38, and for the ca15-3, under 30. Minor fluctuations within the range are completely normal.

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  • marijen
    marijen Member Posts: 3,731
    edited April 2018

    Someone just posted this at another topic and I saved it. I think it will help.


    https://www.oncolink.org/cancer-treatment/procedures-diagnostic-tests/blood-tests-tumor-diagnostic-tests/patient-guide-to-tumor-markers


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