Question about tumour markers?

[Nat1990]

Does anyone’s tumour markers go up and down during treatment? My mums ct scan was good and her markers have continued to come down but past 3-4 weeks have slowed down and today they have gone up 26 marks they started off at 1818 and last week they were 276 today they are 298 we got the ct results last week which were good but I can’t help but worry about the markers rising a little is this normal? xxx

[MyMiracle13]

Hello. Yes tumor markers can go up and down during treatment. Doctors use them as a guide to see if a medication is working but always in conjunction with a scan. They never rely on tumor markers alone as tumor markers can be affected by non cancerous reasons such inflammation or infection. A scan is a more accurate picture of whether or not the current meds are working.

[Nat1990 in reply to MyMiracle13]

Thank you for your reply xx

[PJBinMI]

I' m a long timer living with mbc for over 15 years plus I've attended quite a few bc conferences and a training program for bc patient advocates. Tumor markers are NOT PRECISE!!!! A jump like your mum had can be totally meaningless. During the only time in my years living with this lousy cancer that my TMs were in the normal range, they wobbled around quite a bit. Some oncs don't use TMs at all because they are not reliable for all of us, and they can cause patients and patients' families unwarranted anxiety. Some oncs only use them for those of us with bone mets as bone mets can be hard to keep track of--on scans, healing mets and growing mets sometimes look alot alike. And the oncs who do use them usually only use them to suggest when to have scans, which are much more reliable. Nat, my CA27-29 has been rising for most of the last 8 or 9 years, yet most scans show stability. If I were to worry about the TM numbers, I would have been needlessly torturing myself! I had a very wise very experienced onc until she retired last Dec., and she told me early on that she pays most attention to how we report feeling, scans second and TMs a very very distant third. That has worked extremely well for me. My TMs are generally not tested more frequently than every 3-4 months. I hope your mum does as well as I have. Treatment has gotten better in the years I've been dealin with mbc and there are more options now than there were when I was first diagnosed.

[Titaniam_Turtle in reply to PJBinMI]

I have had 3 malignant tumors in the last 7 years and my tumor markers never indicated a tumor.

[Nat1990 in reply to PJBinMI]

Thank you for your reply made things more clearer x