My DF ( 80)had a bowel resection for T3 rectal cancer last Feb. Doctors thought that they had got it all. Out of 15 lymph nodes tested, only 1 had a minuscule cancer marker which the surgeon was not worried about.
He recovered well from the surgery and doctors felt there was a good chance he had been cured. Said that the risks for " belt and braces" chemo were too great at his age so decided to leave it.
He sees the surgeon, colorectal and stoma nurses regularly and has had a few of these CEA blood tests. The first one showed a reading of 5, the next 6 ( which surgeon and nurses seemed unconcerned with.) The most recent one showed a CEA of 9 and again he said the colorectal nurse seemed unconcerned with this.
He had a CAT scan four months ago which was clear ( as he had a few symptoms they wanted to check) and has another booked for February- which will be a year from when he had his first surgery. He seems in really good health- not experiencing any problems at all.
I have read that above 5 on this test is worrisome and may indicate that the cancer has returned. How accurate are these tests?
Anyone got any info/ experience with this? TIA