CA 19 9 cancer marker
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I have learned that often times tumor markers are not present as some people lack a certain protein.
For others the markers provide a baseline for treatment and will be taken in consideration albeit other symptoms and scan results take on an important role in the evaluation of patient progress.
Best wishes,
MarionDuring my own time of getting lots of CA 19-9 tests, I did some reading up on the test itself. Apparently the results are subject to a fairly high amount of random variance, and the results from any single test should not be given too much weight. What’s more important is the trend over time.
Fern,
As seems the case with so many, my dad has had the CA-19-9 marker jump all over the place. Infection seems to skew it.
I have to tell you, the oncologists attitude seems disturbing to me. My dad has been incredibly sick the last eleven months and not once has anyone told him he is “terminal” nor have they ever blown our concerns off. He has been admitted 12 times in less than a year and we did the ER route once and every time since then, we call, report symptoms and get a direct admit to a room. Most of the time it is 2am and it has been an uncanny number of times on a Saturday or Sunday, without any issue.
Can you get a new oncologist? I would seriously consider switching doctors if you do not get answers.
Stacey
Fern,
I’m sorry you are having such a difficult time. My husband was diagnosed in June ’06. He was unable to have a resection so also had 5 weeks of radiation along with Xeloda followed by 3 treatments of brachytherapy. His tumor went away and has not shown any evidence of returning after repeated biopsies, including some just a week ago. We feel he is cured, unfortunately because of his tumor markers also rising the Docs aren’t too sure about that! Tumor markers are basically a pain! They jump up and down due to many different causes, not necesarily tumor regrowth or activity. My husband’s jump up into the thousands when he has infections, which he gets due to scar tissue in his ducts. He needs stents off and on when these infections occur and usually the markers go down but never to where they should be. After years of stressing about them we really don’t care what they are any more! Your mom’s elevation may simply be due to all of the infection and inflammation she’s dealing with. If they can get get the infections under control with antibiotics and proper drainage then they may actually drop back to normal. I am worried about whether she’s being treated by Drs. who are experienced with cc and by Drs. experienced with performing ERCPS and placing stents. I think it makes a big difference to be at the right facility when it comes to treatment. Also, whenever my husband gets sick we call the Dr. and he is able to be admitted directly and not through the ER. WE went that route last year when he became septic after an ERCP and we said never again! What a stressful, long day. Talk to the Drs. about being able to do that! It’s very important to get those antibiotics going as soon as possible. Don’t be afraid of being outspoken when it comes to your Mom’s care. I have a reputation for being kind of a pain in the you know what, but my husband’s still here almost 5 years later so I really don’t care what anyone thinks. Everyone needs an advocate! Take care and I hope your mother gets things straightened out and begins to feel better. MaryFern, so sorry to hear about the trouble Mom is having. Where is she being treated that they have such a cavalier attitude about CC? A Cancer marker is just that and decisions cannot be made on that alone. Has the ONC recommended any new scans? A Cancer Marker can climb because of an infection as well. Teddy used to get Leviquin (sp) and it always knocked it right out. Have you sought out any other opinions on your Mom? Why is this ONC asking you what you want to do? Did he at least give you options and prognosis? I always listen to my gut and my gut says that you need another opinion soon. Sorry for all the questions but something doesn’t sit right with me here. The reason the ER may take 12 hours to start treatment on an infection is perhaps because they are waiting for culture returns so that they know what to treat the infection with. The last time Teddy had one I just told ER to call his ONC who ordered the Leviquin immediately as he said it would kill almost all infections. That worked! Good luck and best wishes to you.
Hello everyone. My mom was diagnosed in April of 2010. She had radiation for 5 weeks and 3 chemo treatments of gemzar. After her radiation they waited 5 weeks and did a petscan which looked really good. The radiation oncologist who before her treatment said she had 4 months left with no treatment and 9 months with treatment was now saying that what would happen is that things would stay okay for her and that in a while her CA 19 9 numbers would start to rise again and that would be the beginning of the tumor starting to grow and that everything would happen all over again. Well it is happening just as he said and the CA 19 9 is slowly beginning to raise her last test showed it at 94. Although this is 3 times what it should be it is much better than the 654 it was just 5 months prior. Is there another test (cancer marker) that everyone else or anyone else is having done other than this CA 19 9? At this point her medical oncologist is asking us what we want to do? This is not all that reassuring. I am not the professioonal here I do not know when it is best to start her chemo again. She is in the hospital as I write this with yet another infection, cholangitis due to her stent. She has had two ERCP’s in the last 4 days and will have another procedure done tomorrow placing a stent inside of her metal stent and then having an external stent so that it can be checked and also help when these infections come on so that a bag can be hooked up to drain out the bile. We are at the hospital about every 4-6 weeks now due to this last stent which has been in place for 8 months with no problems until now. When she had the plastic stents we were there all the time. She becomes dilusional and runs a high fever and shakes severely when these come on. We take her to the ER but they never listen to us and have to go through all their stuff first so it takes about 12 hours before they ever start getting some antibiotics going. This way we can open up that external stent and let it start draining to help get the healing from the infection started. I mainly wanted to ask about the ca 19 9 and who else is using this test, and ended up typing a novel here…lol. I guess I just want to make sure what we are going through is the norm and if there is anything else I should be looking into. Thanks everyone! Fern
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