118. Chemo CEA: The Beat goes On...

The CEA result is in.  I am grateful that the level has gone down.  I am disappointed that it has not gone down as much as I had hoped.  Remember that a level 5 or lower is considered "normal".  Two weeks ago the level was 7.5; yesterday it was 7.1.  So it came down 0.4 in 2 weeks.  That is a larger decrease than in previous months when it would come down only by 0.1 per month.  I do not know if that is normal, or if I am expecting too much.  It has been coming down since I stopped taking chemotherapy, but I was hoping that after the recent Nanoknife surgery the level would come down much more drastically.  Tomorrow I am scheduled for a phone conversation with the surgeon.  Hopefully he can shed some light on this.  (PS: no he could not)

This is taken from the Cancer Research Society's website:  "In 1965 Philip Gold and Samuel Freedman published a study on their groundbreaking discovery of the Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a protein found in 70% of cancer patients and which can be detected in the blood.  Their discovery established CEA as the first clinically-useful human tumor marker and it remains the most frequently used blood test in oncology around the world.  Their work literally helped shape the modern era of cancer immunology and tumor markers."

The Beat goes on   A youthful 😄Sonny and Cher  1967  

Back on Tuesday!