Tumor markers

My oncologist has never measured tumor markers so when you ladies talk about them I had no idea what they were. Since I was switched to chemo he has started tracking them (I didn’t know this until today ). On May 14 my tumor markers were 400 and yesterday they were 250. He was pleased with this. He said different things affect them so he relies on my scans for the actual results but after one chemo treatment he was pleased with the results.

[Iwasborntodothis]

Great news! Mine have been all over the map but scans are clear (ing). I am happy for you!

[Lap68]

Excellent news!!!

[BluHydrangea]

Yay! Great news!

[Hidden]

That's great news! And, wow, such quick results! Thanks for sharing!

[MacroMom]

That's a big drop in such a short time! Really happy to hear it!

[CharaMasiakou]

Super good news ♥️♥️♥️😊😊keep goi g

[MyMiracle13]

That’s great news! What chemo are you on?

[Hidden in reply to MyMiracle13]

Abraxane.

[Hidden]

Great news and looks very promising for the chemo

Clare x

[Hidden]

That’s great news !

[Timtam56]

Yes. Great it is indeed. Also.... my question is what chemo are you on and how are you coping with it?

[Hidden in reply to Timtam56]

Abraxane is the chemo drug and I did ok month one. I was tired, body and joint aches for about a week. I had zometa also and that can give body aches. Today is just the Abraxane so I will see what I get in just it. Fatigue was really the worse side effect. A little nausea but minimal and only got it when my stomach was empty. Week three my hair started coming on in clumps.

[MacroMom in reply to Hidden]

I get Xgeva for bones and the one time I got it the same day as Abraxane I felt a lot more joint pain too for a few days. Next time I'm going to ask for Xgeva on one of my weeks off chemo! I'm on my 11th or 12th Abraxane now and find the post-infusion fatigue is lessening quite a bit. Hang in there!

[Hidden in reply to MacroMom]

Thanks. I find it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. I guess having a wild imagination and expecting the worse can be beneficial when things turn out not bad. Lol.

[Tam-56]

You go girl!!💃🏻💃🏼💃🏽💃🏿

[8576]

My Oncologist doesn't pay attention to markers either. Relies on the scans. Glad you are doing better on the chemo treatment.

Cheers, June S.

[Bubbles001]

That’s really great! I’ve had 5 rounds of chemo and my markers have only gone down 10%. I’ll take it! Down or stable is good.

[flowersinherhair]

I would be thrilled with a result like that....Its an indicator that the chemo is working!

[Rhwright12]

Awesome news!

[mariootsi]

Wow! Great news.

[PJBinMI]

Congratulations! That is really good news! As a long termer, who has attended several big bc and mbc conferences, I can't resist adding my 2 cents worth about TMs! One interesting thing I learned at an educational program for mbc patients was that some onc's don't use TMs at all because they aren't accurate for everybody and can cause undue anxiety if they rise for reasons unrelated to progression of the cancer. Experienced oncs generally don't use TMs alone for treatment decisions but may use them as a reason for ordering scans or other tests. Some oncs use them only for their patients with bone mets as those can be difficult to track since progressing and healing can look similar on scans. TMs can react to things besides cancer progression. Sometimes they will rise right after a new treatment is started and is killing off cancer cells as dying cancer cells can make the TM numbers go up. That is called "flare." One of the big things I have learned is that our response to treatment is very individual. What works for one of us may not work for another. I've learned not to worry just because a TM suddenly takes a jump. What they do over time is more important, though a nice decrease like you have had shortly after starting a new med is a great sign that it is working and will work .......... I have heard of people having TMs as high as 2000 or 3000. That doesn't really mean that their cancer is 10 times "worse" than someone with a TM in the 200s. Since TMs are expressed as numbers (duh!) they tend to sound more precise than they are! We're used to numbers meaning more than TMs do. For example if we take our child's temp and it is 101, we take action! And 101 means more than 99 does. Or when we are baking cookies, we know we had better check them aftera certain amount of time has gone by, depending on the recipe and what we know about our oven and whether it tends towards hot or cold. But TMs are just not like that. I hope this chemo that you are on now will work well for you for along time, without nasty side effects. You know, it really is too bad that we have to learn all this stuff! Most of us felt alot better before cancer and all the input that goes along with it!

[Stinsonmom]

My Stanford oncologist doesn’t test for markers either.

[Hidden in reply to Stinsonmom]

Mine didn’t until I started Chemo. He said they aren’t predictable but he said this big drop was a good thing and wanted to share with me.

[Hidden]

Wonderful news!!!!!

[Hidden]

Thanks Sandra.