Pc & Low Cancer Markers ???

My mother had the wipple procedure done in Nov 2006.  She tried Chemo but could not deal with it.  She is 70 years old now.  In Nov 2007 we were told that it seemed to be back but couldn't be confirmed.  Her CT-Scan showed marks in her lungs which were too small to biopsy.  This month another CT-Scan revealed additional spots in her lungs although numbers are growing they are staying small - too small to biopsy.  They also found a spot in the liver which was large enough to biopsy and came back as PC.  Obviously Drs can't say how long a person will live - I was told 3-6 months back in October, now I'm being told it could be 9 months so they just don't know which is fine by me because my mother is still in relatively good spirits and although she has some pain generally speaking she's still doing ok. 

Here's the part I need help with, the Dr told me that her cancer markers aren't going up.  They don't understand why they aren't.  Her markers came down after the surgery and although they've slightly gone up and down several times during the last year - we're only talking differences in the single digits.  Has anyone been in the same situation?  I'm hoping that this is a sign that the cancer is slow to progress and I'll have her for a long time.

I'm not exactly sure what it means but I can tell you what we were told.  My mother has had 10 days total of chemo so far (1 week in Jan and 1 week in Feb along with 2 days out of the 10 that she had chemo directly to the tumor).  Her markers came down from 3 to 1.5.  She was told by the nurse that this means the tumor is not "producing".  So in your mother's case, it may mean that the growth has been stopped and it is no longer producing - giving you the low results ???  Whatever the case, we were told it is very good news.  So I believe you may be correct when you say "slow to progress".  I wish you much success!

On 2/28/2008 barbara529 wrote:

My mother had the wipple procedure done in Nov 2006.  She tried Chemo but could not deal with it.  She is 70 years old now.  In Nov 2007 we were told that it seemed to be back but couldn't be confirmed.  Her CT-Scan showed marks in her lungs which were too small to biopsy.  This month another CT-Scan revealed additional spots in her lungs although numbers are growing they are staying small - too small to biopsy.  They also found a spot in the liver which was large enough to biopsy and came back as PC.  Obviously Drs can't say how long a person will live - I was told 3-6 months back in October, now I'm being told it could be 9 months so they just don't know which is fine by me because my mother is still in relatively good spirits and although she has some pain generally speaking she's still doing ok. 

Here's the part I need help with, the Dr told me that her cancer markers aren't going up.  They don't understand why they aren't.  Her markers came down after the surgery and although they've slightly gone up and down several times during the last year - we're only talking differences in the single digits.  Has anyone been in the same situation?  I'm hoping that this is a sign that the cancer is slow to progress and I'll have her for a long time.

On 2/28/2008 ForMyMom wrote:

I'm not exactly sure what it means but I can tell you what we were told.  My mother has had 10 days total of chemo so far (1 week in Jan and 1 week in Feb along with 2 days out of the 10 that she had chemo directly to the tumor).  Her markers came down from 3 to 1.5.  She was told by the nurse that this means the tumor is not "producing".  So in your mother's case, it may mean that the growth has been stopped and it is no longer producing - giving you the low results ???  Whatever the case, we were told it is very good news.  So I believe you may be correct when you say "slow to progress".  I wish you much success!

On 2/28/2008 barbara529 wrote:

My mother had the wipple procedure done in Nov 2006.  She tried Chemo but could not deal with it.  She is 70 years old now.  In Nov 2007 we were told that it seemed to be back but couldn't be confirmed.  Her CT-Scan showed marks in her lungs which were too small to biopsy.  This month another CT-Scan revealed additional spots in her lungs although numbers are growing they are staying small - too small to biopsy.  They also found a spot in the liver which was large enough to biopsy and came back as PC.  Obviously Drs can't say how long a person will live - I was told 3-6 months back in October, now I'm being told it could be 9 months so they just don't know which is fine by me because my mother is still in relatively good spirits and although she has some pain generally speaking she's still doing ok. 

Here's the part I need help with, the Dr told me that her cancer markers aren't going up.  They don't understand why they aren't.  Her markers came down after the surgery and although they've slightly gone up and down several times during the last year - we're only talking differences in the single digits.  Has anyone been in the same situation?  I'm hoping that this is a sign that the cancer is slow to progress and I'll have her for a long time.

My understanding is that if the new spots,no matter where they come up, are as a result of the pancreatic cancer it will still show up on the CA19-9 blood test. Are they saying the spots on the lungs are from the PC or are they totally new and lung cancer? 1.5 is so excellent if it is the CA19.9 blood test. My husbands is at 8. hiswayc