Some Encouraging Movement

The one aspect of my blood tests from last week that I did not know until today is that my "tumour marker" blood counts have shown improvement.

The tumours markers were part of the picture that was used to decide that my operation would not go ahead in July.

At the time the marker called CA19-9 had fallen from an initial 60000+ down to 10,000 at the end of the first three cycles of chemotherapy. However, when the chemotherapy stopped it was at 25,000 three weeks later.  A further two weeks on and it had seemingly stablised at 20,000.

These markers take a couple of days to come through from the blood tests and, as of last Wednesday, it stands at 11,000.

It is important to note that it is not so much the number that is important as the trend.  That indicates why it was seen as a negative thing when it bounced to 25,000 after coming off the chemotherapy in June.  The aim is to get the readings down but, just as importantly, to ensure they do not go back up when treatment finishes.  This will give some indication (though only an indication) that the tumour will not grow back straight away once an operation is performed.

The other indicator is the CEA, which as fallen from 85 to 75 having risen steadily since the initial chemotherapy stopped in June.

Technical and boring but something positive.