Tumor Marker Numbers - Helpful but Not Definitive

I got good news a couple of days ago. My CA15-3 and CEA tumor marker numbers, which have been steadily rising for the last year, are going down. This seems to be a result of the low-dose chemo drug, Xeloda, that I have been taking (in pill form) for the last twelve or . . . maybe sixteen? . . . weeks.

My understanding is that the actual numbers are not easy to interpret. A woman can have very low numbers and be near death. A woman can have very high numbers and not be near death. There must be some reasons why this is so, but I don't know exactly what they are. Maybe someone reading this, who knows more than I do or has time to do some research, can explain it.

Anyway, although the exact numbers are not definitive, you can at least follow them and get a general sense of how things are going/trending. You can look to see if the numbers are rising, and how fast they are rising. . . or if they are going the opposite directions . . . or still rising but not as fast. Etc.

It took about a year for my numbers to rise from well under 100 to around 1000. It took more than six weeks for the Xeloda to begin to slow the trend, then a few more weeks to stop it from rising, and then six more weeks to reverse the trend. Now the hope is that the reversal will continue until the markers are back down to normal.

When they are back down to normal, that will not mean that I have been "cured" of breast cancer. But it will show that my body is hanging in there -- pushing the cancer back, pushing it down, keeping it at bay.

And I'll be doing everything I can to keep it that way. Not just taking Xeloda, but doing other "alternative" things to help boost my immune system (which the Xeloda suppresses and weakens) and to help the Xeloda work even better.

 

 

 

Comments

[Jeff]

Great news, Jane!