Steroids

[Love2315]

My mom has PPC and also got double pneumonia and had large doses of steroids her CA 125 went from over 2000 to 300 ?? Oncologist sees no reason and still insisting on standard protocol of chemo, does not make sense to me. Anyone have any experience on this?

[Katmal-UK]

Hi. A normal range of CA125 is below 37 so I assume thats why the onc is suggesting standard chemo? I assume thats what you are querying? Hope your mum is ok xx

[Yoshbosh]

Has she had any scans to see what’s going on? The pneumonia could certainly cause an increase to the CA125, and once it’s getting better, the level could drop, but the best way to know what’s going on with the cancer is a scan. I’ve had elevated CA125 but a clear scan, so I didn’t have chemo until something could be seen.

[Lily-Anne]

The steroids will reduce the inflammation in the tissues surrounding the tumours. My CA125 has fallen from 397 to 225. I’m on no treatment but I do take steroids. As it’s a marker for inflammation and one for secretions of cancer cells it can be difficult to ascertain the reasons for the numbers. High or low.

Chemo has to be aligned with choice. So what does she want to do?

LA xx

[Neona]

Steroids reduce inflammation so I reckon this would bring the ca 125 count down. However cancer causes inflammation so I would definitely take the chemo. I was on steroids for 2 years for inflammation supposedly caused by polymyalgia but all the time I had ovarian cancer.

[kat98116]

This is a long shot but sometimes certain antibiotics work to suppress cancer. I'm assuming she was on one if she had pneumonia.....Just something to mull...Interesting and great that it's going down!