1.9 CEA

Yesterday I had my bi-weekly CEA blood test and it has declined further, to 1.9. This is great news. "Normal" levels are anything below 3.0 but my baseline CEA is <0.5, essentially undetectable. My CEA had declined to 0.7 this past January and then it started its climb up and I knew that it was just a matter of time before a scan detected new activity. It was 5.7 on July 7th, before I started this "maintenance" chemotherapy. I'm delighted to watch it decline.

The plan is to do another round of chemo next week and then do another scan shortly afterward to see what's going on. I've also been reading a fascinating book called Anticancer, written by a physician who himself battled brain cancer for 20 years (I just learned from that website that he died last month). So far I have learned that Japanese green tea has extraordinary cancer-fighting properties and so today David and I bought some high-quality green tea for me to drink three times a day. Also I will be learning to like salmon since the omega-3s that it provides fights cancer. Additionally I will try to switch to grass-fed beef and products from grass-fed cattle, organic eggs high in omega-3, and organic chicken. If you'd like to know why then read the book! It is truly eye-opening.

My CEA Level Has Declined

The CEA is a blood test used to monitor the treatment of cancer patients, especially those with colon cancer. My CEA, though it does not travel very far, tells a true story. I was constantly told by my previous oncologist that it was always normal and so I didn't pay any attention to it for the first couple of years. It was only after my cancer came back last year (June 2010) that I requested all of the CEA test results. I then studied them looking for a trend. Yes, often it was in the "normal range" but it would trend upwards when my cancer was back and it was undetectable when it was not. This test is what gave me a clue this past spring that my cancer was returning. In March it started to rise again and before my chemotherapy started two weeks ago it was 5.7. I had it re-tested last Friday and already it's on its way down. It is 5.2. This is great news to me and my oncologist. This tells us that the gentle drug therapy that we have chosen seems to be working.

Dr. Dormady said today that I will do a total of four treatments and then do another scan to see how things look. Today I started treatment number two. If it's like the last time I won't even feel it, it's that gentle. Now, this is the way to go!!