Elevated Cea With No Other Symptoms

I had bowel resection surgery 2 years ago.  My cancer was removed and the surgery was considered the cure.  I have not had to have any further treatment.  But my CEA level is still elevated.  My oncologist tests this level every 6 months and it is staying within a certain range.  He says this is very odd but I may just be a person who has an elevated CEA without cancer being present.  Has anyone else experienced this?

Elevated to what level - range, etc

A normal CEA level is less than 3 for a healthy non-smoker.  Mine runs from 6-14.

I have been told on numerous occasions that a level between 0 an 5 is normal.  Six to 14 could be OK if it continues at those levels - it depends on your individual history.   In other words, if you are consistently at the 6 to 14 level, it could be your normal situation.  I have seen levels in the hundereds on this site a number of times.  It could also be because of minor infections, etc. 

my husband has colon cancer with liver mets, he had surgery on april to remove the colon cancer for the second time.  His CAE levels are 7 at present time. Doesn't this sound good.  He just started his chemo last week. He has a 7cm mass on his right liver lobe and 2 smaller ones on his left liver.

Hi--------want to share my story.  I am 9 years post stage II colon cancer-------that should give you hope.  Before surgery my CEA was 4.3.  I have my blood tested (at my request) every three months and it ranges from3.0 to 4.6, which is it is now.  Yearly PET and CT scans have been clear.  I'm one of those where it just keeps bouncing around.  It's something we have to live with.  I still get anxiety before  each blood test and scan but it's a small price to pay as long as we are healthy.  It's out of the ordinary but I encourage you to take an active role in decision-making with your oncologist.  E-mail me any time-----Marge     ( --Message edited by CancerCompass staff. For personal protection, email address removed. Consider private reply. Please review CancerCompass Member Guidelines at http://www.cancercompass.com/common/guidelines.html-- )

 

On 7/5/2008 Margebf wrote:

Hi--------want to share my story.  I am 9 years post stage II colon cancer-------that should give you hope.  Before surgery my CEA was 4.3.  I have my blood tested (at my request) every three months and it ranges from3.0 to 4.6, which is it is now.  Yearly PET and CT scans have been clear.  I'm one of those where it just keeps bouncing around.  It's something we have to live with.  I still get anxiety before  each blood test and scan but it's a small price to pay as long as we are healthy.  It's out of the ordinary but I encourage you to take an active role in decision-making with your oncologist.  E-mail me any time-----Marge     ( --Message edited by CancerCompass staff. For personal protection, email address removed. Consider private reply. Please review CancerCompass Member Guidelines at http://www.cancercompass.com/common/guidelines.html-- )

Hi Marge,

Thank you for replying to my email.  Glad to hear you are doing so well. My surgery was 2 years ago and since then my CEA has ranged from 6 to 13.6. Pre-surgery it was 6.3 and it didn't go down after surgery.  As a result I had a PET scan which turned out fine.  I have a blood test every 6 weeks and the CEA level doesn't change much--just stays in thatsame  range.  The oncologist says I am in that very small percentage of people that has an elevated CEA level and it isn't related to any cancer being in my body.  I am learning to accept that since I have been healthy the past 2 years.  But I still also get anxious before I go in and have the blood test every 6 months.  I suppose at some point the blood tests will stop.  When I had my bowel resection I didn't have to have any further treatment.  I was very lucky that the cancer was found so early and there was no lymph node involvement.  Cathy