Calprotectin in colon cancer

[Scaredbuthopeful]

Hi everyone

I understand calprotectin is quite a sensitive bio marker, albeit it quite non-specific for CRC.

My question is, what is the likelihood of someone having CRC and returning a normal fecal calprotectin test?

I’ve been having a tonne of bowel issues lately and am not in the best health right now, but every test I’ve had done has come back completely normal. This is odd because I’m not feeling very well at all at the moment, so would suggest is CRC was the issue then the disease would be quite advanced. But every test is normal so far and I’m quite confused.

I’m going to keep pushing for a colonoscopy to be done to get to the bottom of this ‘pun intended’.

Thanks

[mondlee6248]

What are your bowel issues?

[Scaredbuthopeful in reply to mondlee6248]

Well I have had a dodgy tummy for as long as I can remember to be honest, I’m talking 4-5 years. I always reacted badly and had to rush to the toilet whenever I would eat spicy food (which I’m a big fan of) or greasy food, and would usually be fine when eating normal healthy stuff, but it has gotten worse in the past 18 months.

The thing that kicked this all off, is I had a period of extreme stress & anxiety for about 6 weeks, I suffer from purely obsessional OCD so when I get anxious I really get trapped in it and it can take me a while to get out of the cycle. After that I was experiencing pain in my kidney areas & was peeing about 12-14 times a day (I must add I was always a frequent pee’er but this was much worse) which I went to the GP for and they found nothing, then the pain seemed to move into my lower abdomen, around where my bladder is & that stayed there for maybe 5 weeks.

During this time I was back and forth to the doctors, trying to get tests to figure out what was going on. Then maybe 10 days ago my symptoms changed, the pain subsided but since then my appetite has absolutely disappeared, I’m constipated, I’ve got weight absolutely falling off me & im not feeling good at all.

Obviously at this point I’ve convinced myself I’m dying and I’m really concerned. Been referred to a gastroenterologist & have some scans booked for next week.

[Nicole_GCCA Partner in reply to Scaredbuthopeful]

Be sure to share the weight loss symptom with your doctor. I'm so glad you'll have tests coming up. It can be exhausting to fight to get a diagnosis, but the hope is that this will give you the answers you are looking for and a means to treat your condition.

Hang in there!

~Nicole @ GCCA

[mondlee6248 in reply to Scaredbuthopeful]

So did you go for any more checks, no blood in stool right

[Nicole_GCCA Partner]

Hello Scaredbuthopeful ,

Thank you for posting, and I'm sorry for what you are experiencing.

Since raised calprotectin indicated inflammation, it is most often an indication of a digestive disease such as Crohn's disease.

A colonoscopy will be able to tell you and your doctor what is going on in your gut - please do continue to advocate for a colonoscopy.

In speaking to your doctor about getting the colonoscopy, please be sure to provide all symptoms, location of pain, any blood ,etc.

Please keep us posted.

~Nicole @ GCCA