Undetectable Tg Levels??

Can anyone tell me if .4 surpressed 5 months after RA131 is considered undetectable?

I know the RA131 keeps working and thr true test is the unsurpressed tg, but what is the lowest tg when someone goes on maintenance. Is it zero or under .4

We use the mayo clinic for her labs so I know assays are different. Any feeedback is appreciated. thanks,

 

On 5/13/2008 denmurpar wrote:

Can anyone tell me if .4 surpressed 5 months after RA131 is considered undetectable?

I know the RA131 keeps working and thr true test is the unsurpressed tg, but what is the lowest tg when someone goes on maintenance. Is it zero or under .4

We use the mayo clinic for her labs so I know assays are different. Any feeedback is appreciated. thanks,

Hi

 I had heard and read that undetectable is zero but anything under 2.0 is considered a good level. That's what my husband's endo had told us as well. That is while supressed. Hope that helped.

 Karen

I don't know but I just got a call from my endo that my suppressed Tg level, I believe he said was .29 which is low but as a resuIt I am a candidate for a stimulating Tg and thyroid scan.  Of course, I also have tall cell and had a neck dissection for mets found in 3 lymph nodes in my neck.  He indicated that he would be concerned with a lesser value than seen with patients with the common type of papillary cancer in my case.  I'm learning more about this disease every day and coming to realize that it never really ends! 

So really, ideally, they want you at 0 and nothing higher when you are surpressed after treatment? I wonder because my daugther is in hypo and going in to a unsurpressed tg on 6/11 and I want to be knowledgeable on when to act on a number when they draw her blood and test tg. If it's even 2, unsurpressed, shouldnt she have another treatment? OR how about 1?? Doesnt that tell of some remaining tissue? She had T2, N1a, MX and Lymphovascular invasion so that tells of more aggressive disease.

Just want to be 100 % sure of my stuff before going through this next round. She had ra131 6 months ago so dont want to comprimise her salivarys if she doesnt need to rightnow.

Thanks and all my best to you with your next treatment. Blessings, DP

I'm still learning about all this myself and I don't want to misguide you so I'll only tell you what I've been told.  Years ago they didn't have the sofistication they do now in measuring Tg levels.  Years ago they couldn't measure below a 2 so if it was a 2 that was considered good but now they can pick up trace amounts and a low reading may or may not indicate a problem that is the reason for following through on stimulating the Tg by putting you in a hypo state and scanning and then retaking blood levels to check the levels under that state.  It is with all this information that they can decide if additional RAI is needed if residual tumor seems to be present.  My reading was either a .23 or 2.3, before my neck dissection it was 4 something so he said it has come down.  Ultimately, 0 would be great as of course it would indicate no tumor cells.  My endo said it is possible that there is benign residual tissue causing the slight increase but they just don't know at this point.  If my levels go up, of course, they would look for tumor cells, if it remains the same or goes down, I'm assuming they would just follow up.  He did mention that I would also continue to have neck ultrasounds.  Unfortunately, I have tall cell which did not enhance in the first scan so it is more difficult for them to find it if my levels do indicate a presence.  Thyroid cancer is unique in all this.  As I said I'm learning as I go along.  Best of luck to your daughter.  Keep me posted.