Tumor Marker Question

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justaquestion
justaquestion Member Posts: 1
edited November 2018 in Not Diagnosed With a Recurrence or Metastases but Concerned

I have had breast cancer 3 times. 1st time with a lumpectomy and radiation 2nd and 3rd time with double mastectomy. They have now found a spot on my liver and several in my lungs however my tumor marker is only 11.5. Can it still be a metastasized breast cancer? The BRCA gene runs in my family and I my grandmother and 7 of her sisters daughters have all had breast cancer with all but 1 passing away. I am scheduled for a PET scan was just hoping since the numbers were good that it would not be possible for it to have spread.

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  • Moderators
    Moderators Member Posts: 25,912
    edited November 2018

    justaquestion, welcome to Breastcancer.org. Sorry your circumstances has brought you here but glad you found us!

    We're sorry you haven't had any replies yet, and wanted to bump your post so you will hopefully get a few replies. Please let us know how it goes on your PET scan. We're thinking of you!

    The Mods

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  • bevin
    bevin Member Posts: 1,902
    edited November 2018

    i am sorry you need scans. As I understand the markers are not always accurate. I'm glad they're looking at all possibilities. I am sure others with more knowledge will be by soon to give inlut. I think with Thanksgiving the boards were more quiet than usual.

    Keep us postes.

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

    Tumor markers are not accurate for everyone. Hopefully they will do s biopsy to see exactly what is there, and make an appropriate plan moving forward. I am so sorry you are dealing with this

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  • Polly413
    Polly413 Member Posts: 124
    edited November 2018

    justaquestion - Don't know your age but lots of older people have lung nodules and spots in their lungs which are benign. I speak from experience because my first oncologist after my diagnosis with Stage II IDC ordered a CT scan which showed I had issues in lung and liver. Normally they would not be of concern but because I had IDC the discovery of these issues led to an order for followup CTs at 6 month intervals. After the first followup showed no changes, my second oncologist agreed that no further testing was necessary unless I develop clinical signs of mets. I agree with the posters who say that tumor markers are not dispositive as to the existence of mets but for what it is worth my marker numbers since the first month of chemo have been in single digits and I believe my oncologist considers them reassuring to some extent anyway. I send you best wishes for a good test result. Polly

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