Recurrence questions

I had surgery for stomach cancer 11 months ago. My CA19-9, which has been tested about once a month, has gone from 8 to 27 to 95 to 225 to 800 (normal is 37). Me CEA is up to 9 (normal is 3). Has anyone had numbers this high after surgery when it was not a recurrence? Has anyone had numbers like this when it was a recurrence? If so, how soon did it show in a scan? Anyone had a positive experience in beating a recurrence? I understand that it is rare, but would like to hear something encouraging. When I was diagnosed my CA19-9 was 5000 and CEA was 66, so I'm not at that level yet.

I beat a recurrence.  I was diagnosed in 2007 with stage IV adenocarcinoma of the GE junction with mets to four lymph nodes. 

In Jan 2011 a CT scan showed a mass in some abdominal fat near my spleen.  They surgically removed the mass and my spleen.  Now, a year later, no evidence of disease. 

Hip hip hurray, I dodged a second bullet, beat the odds and, in spite of long term problems caused by a year of chemo, radiation and a two surgeries, I'm grateful for everyday I'd never thought I'd see.

Tom

That is very encouraging Tom, thank you.  And that is great that you have no evidence of disease.  Was it hard to find a surgeon to do surgery the second time? They've implied to me that they wouldn't do it a second time around, but I'm wondering if different surgeons would say different things.

Congrats, and thanks.

Hi Eric,

I'm sorry but I don't have any experience with this. However, there's a blogger who's mom has stomach ca, was stage 4 I believe and recently had a reoccurance. The link is:http://kerryfranke.blogspot.com/

She just had surgery to remove a peritoneal met. Perhaps you can contact her as well? I hope you find this info helpful and my best wishes to you. Hang in there.

Eric,  I did need to convince a surgeon to perform the surgery.  I had tranferred from Stanford to Kaiser.  At Kaiser, my oncologist recommeded surgery, but the surgeon told me that it probably wouldn't do much good.  He said that I would probably have more recurrences, intimating that my case was hopeless.  It took a little pressure to convince him in the end.  I'm glad I did. 

I also asked my oncologist if he recommended chemo again after surgery.  He felt that the cancer was pretty resistant to chemo.  He told me I could shop a round and probably find an oncologist who would do it, but he didn't recommned it.  He tought the detrimental effects would be worse than the benefits.

Tom 

Thank you both - that is very helpful to know.