Ovarian remission & aggressive recurrence within months?

[chrisjohnson9201]

I have a very strange scenario and I was looking to see if others have gone through the same experience.

My mother has been battling Ovarian cancer for about 10 years now. Historically, her type of cancer has been very slow-growing. After her first recurrence, it took about 5 years of constant switches and chemos that were resisting before tumors started to reach critical masses. At that time, tumors spread to pelvic area and lung. Scans showed masses and her ability to breathe was impaired significantly.

At the time (when we knew tumors were present and very large), CA 125 was about 1,150.

And then, she went on an experimented drug usually used for melanoma called Mekinist and Tafinlar. Within two months, her breathing normalized, her scans were clear of tumors, and her CA 125 dropped from 1,150 to 35.

It was truly a miracle.

The doctor gave her remission status. However, 1 month after remission, her CA 125 shot up to 300. A magnitude increase we have never seen before. The next month it went up to 800.

She is still taking the two drugs that got her down in the first place, but this sudden elevation is extremely concerning. If scans showed all clear, it doesn't make sense that this elevation would happen this quickly. When she went into remission the first time, it took about 3 years of slow, consistent increases in CA 125 from 40 to 130 before they had to scan, which resulted in about 5 tumors in her pelvic area about the size of a pin-head.

And sure, cancer can be aggressive. But even extremely aggressive cancers don't grow THAT fast when there aren't any detectable tumors to build off of. We're waiting on a scan to see if we can see any tumors, but I wanted to see if anyone has had sudden spikes in CA 125 after remission that didn't coincide with previous tumor size.

I'm not denying the cancer recurrence, but I'm questioning how accurate her CA 125 is as a predictor of her tumor size based on how it was previously.

[Vicart]

Hi Chris,

Last March my # went from 17 to 1790 in a 2 week period. I didn’t have any significant tumor growth but I had acccumulated fluid in my abdomen...It dropped rapidly after they drained the fluid. I did then go on small maintenance doses of chemo. Hoping your moms scan comes back clear.💕

[chrisjohnson9201 in reply to Vicart]

I really appreciate this response. Thank you for sharing