CA 27 29 greater than 9000?

Options
Larkin
Larkin Member Posts: 58
edited May 2019 in Stage IV/Metastatic Breast Cancer ONLY

Anyone alive ever get this over achieving score like me? Bones only as of 6 weeks ago. Two weeks before was around 1200. Message into my MO. Am I about to burst into a flaming ball of cancer?!

· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • blainejennifer
    blainejennifer Member Posts: 1,848
    edited April 2019

    I was there about four months ago. Started Gemzar/Carboplatin, and TMs started dropping fast. As of 3/16, they were 268. When I was first diagnosed in 2012, TMs were in the high 9,000s. Went on weekly Taxol, and it took three months, I think, to get back down to a vaguely normal range.

    You should know that any count over 5,000 is more of an educated guess than an accurate number, and can vary from lab tech to lab tech.

    My MO says that ER/PR+ patients tend to express scary high TMs. You might want to retest, in case this is a bad reading. That increase sounds super fast. Even when I went from bone only to liver/bone mets, my numbers didn't race up like that.

    Jennifer

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Larkin
    Larkin Member Posts: 58
    edited April 2019

    Thanks Jennifer. We are rerunnng the test

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Nkb
    Nkb Member Posts: 1,436
    edited April 2019

    Larkin- how did the retest go? Mine are really high also and when they fluctuate it is by 500-1000 at a time. They doubled to 9800 when I was between therapies for 2 months. Went down 1500 after one month of afinitor. My MO and the UCSF specialist have never seen TMs this high so I suspect it is rather unusual. Hopefully yours will predict whether treatment is working or not.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Larkin
    Larkin Member Posts: 58
    edited May 2019

    Wanted to update this thread in case anyone comes up against the same situation. On March 29 my tumor markers tested at over 9000. On March 15 they had been 1553. Since then the values have been on April 5th 1420, On April 19 1451, on May 10 1539 and the newest test that we ran on May 17 came in at a very encouraging 1333. That’s down 206 points from March 15 minus the anomaly of over 9000. I am on Air revealingeribulin Which is my sixth line of treatment. Besides 881. Dropped when I first started Xeloda, This is the first time I have ever seen a drop since I began this journey almost 3 years ago. I am very cautiously optimistic and cannot wait to see if the trend continues and what my next scan will look like at the end of July. Long story short we are assuming the reading of over 9000 was a lab error or a very strange reaction in my sales before this new drop has started.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • blainejennifer
    blainejennifer Member Posts: 1,848
    edited May 2019

    Larkin,

    I have a pathologist buddy who told me that any CA 27-29 result over 1500 is a matter of pathologist interpretation, as the machine doesn't do those counts well. Ask for the same person to interpret a reading over 1500 so that you get some consistency.

    Best of luck!

    Jennifer

    (highest number ever 3,000ish)

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Larkin
    Larkin Member Posts: 58
    edited May 2019

    thanks for the insight Jennifer. I will definitely keep that in mind

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Categories