An Educational Day at the SCCA, Lesson 4: Tumor Markers Sometimes Aren't

In the past folks have asked me about my tumor markers. I know I have them, and I know they caused someone concern at some point, but I never really bothered to absorb them myself. Today I did.

Over the last eight lab results SCCA has in my medical record, the oldest three had values for the tumor markers, the next three didn't, last time's visit had a marker, and today's was still in process when I was talking with the PA. The original three values hovered at around 4.3, and last time's was seven point something, So is that good or bad?

Glad you asked. I asked too. I actually asked quite a few questions. And in sum, what I got was "eh, hard to tell." If I'm recalling all the details correctly, it seems among all the other variations in tumors there's also variation in how communicative they are. Some spew out tumor markers with every minor change, while others quietly grow and mind their own business. So until you have a whole history of tumor marker numbers and a bunch of scans that you can cross reference them against, the tumor markers don't really tell you very much.

Makes as much sense as anything in the cancer biz.