Do higher tumor markers mean cancer has come back?

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katiegrey
katiegrey Member Posts: 79
edited October 2018 in Not Diagnosed With a Recurrence or Metastases but Concerned

I had my six-month check-up with my oncologist today and tonight she called and said my tumor markers are higher than normal; she wants me to have a PET scan next week. My first dx was 5 years ago. Since then, my tumor markers have been consistently around 23 or 24. They were 38 today. Do I have reason to be worried, or can other things affect tumor markers

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  • MelissaDallas
    MelissaDallas Member Posts: 7,268
    edited October 2018

    If you know and canlook up the specific marker that is elevated it will give information on things (besides cancer) that can cause fluctuation

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  • sheila888
    sheila888 Member Posts: 25,634
    edited October 2018

    katiegrey...I'm in the same situation since last week it was never over 25.

    But this time when I saw my Dr's name on caller ID I knew something was wrong it jumped to 55 and he wants to repeat the test in 2 months which I found torturous .

    Yes lots of things can elevate it......

    Inflammation in any part of your body.....sometimes if you had a cold....I also think the steroids can cause it. But we wanna know now right ? Now I'm pretending nothing is wrong which could be the truth and believing it will go back to normal.

    He will ordered bone scan and the lungs. But he said he's not worried. Sure it's not happening to him it's easy to say....

    Please update us.

    Hugs

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  • Meow13
    Meow13 Member Posts: 4,859
    edited October 2018

    No one score by itself doesn't mean much it is the trend.

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  • KBeee
    KBeee Member Posts: 5,109
    edited October 2018

    Most MOs do not do them because they are notorious for false positives due to things such as inflammation. Hoping yours is a false positive too.

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