Tumour markers

[Gramat]

Has anyone found during Ibrance and Letrozole that their tumour marker has gone over the normal range with a a cold and then gone down again?

[Threadsgirl]

Yes, this has happened to me, had a tooth infection and my marker went up slightly, then came back down again and has stayed there. Same meds. Try not to stress too much even though easy to say, hard to do.

[Gramat in reply to Threadsgirl]

Thanks for your reassurance.

[Ilovehorses]

Yes! Last year I had a cold / flu that turned into a lingering cough. My tumor markers went up and my dr insisted on a scan. That showed a spot on my lung which didn’t surprise me at all considering I had this lingering cough that I knew was from my illness. He boosted my Ibrance to a higher dose and insisted I see a lung doctor. I did that and to make a very long involved story short I had a lung infection ( no cancer though I had to go through a biopsy to prove that). Antibiotics took care of it and my markers went down. I’m still angry that I had to go through all I did when the lung doctor had even stated it didn’t look like cancer but I better have a biopsy anyway. A course of antibiotics would have taken care of it without all the extra expense and of course it took months to get all of it scheduled and done. But the short answer is that yes illness DOES raise your markers!

[Spettis7]

Yes, I had covid at the end of last year for several weeks. My numbers have been up and down since that time. However, my scans have remained stable. I found that eating healthy has helped tremendously!!

[love2golfwell]

Infections and things other than cancer can elevate tumor markers. Mine went up 10 points one time after I started taking Vitamin B12. My doctor insisted I have a scan right away to see what was going on. The scan was clear, I stopped taking the B12 and the marker went down again. When I suggested the B12 might have caused the elevation, I was told it would not and that is was probably a lab error.

[PJBinMI]

I'm a long timer with MBC and have been to conferences and learned alot about this lousy cancer. Alot of oncs don't order TMs as they can cause us needless anxiety. How our bodies feel is a better indicator of progression. Unless we have a very aggressive fast growing cancer, following a treatment plan and letting our oncs know if we develop new symptoms/side effects will likely keep us going for longer than we expect when first diagnosed. Survival statistics are brought down alot by aggressive cancer, not taking our meds as prescribed, not letting our oncs know about changes. One of the good things to do is to get a second opinion onc, a bc specialist who sees only bc patients, if you aren't already seeing one. The top tier of cancer centers in the US are those designated "Comprehensive Cancer Centers, " about 52 of them, listed on the website of the National Cancer Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health. End of speech, lol!