CA 19-9 levels are decreasing, what's next?

Mrs B. · New User Joined: 11 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

My dad has pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed last october.
His cancer is inoperable since he has metastasis on the perinoteum. Lymph nodes, liver, lungs are clear.

After 5 cycles of chemotherapy (10 weeks) his CA 19-9 level dropped from 12,500 to 800. He's still on chemo.
What does this mean? Is it 'just' some precious extra time he's got? Or could his cancer (and of course the metastasis) be removed with surgery or radiation therapy? The doctor can't give us a clear answer so I hope there's someone here who can.

Eve

brainman

Eve, I am very sorry about your husband's Pancreatic Cancer. Pancreatic Cancer is such a terrible cancer and that it has metastasized only makes his situation worse. Even with aggressive treatment his prognosis is not good Sad

. I cannot begin to imagine how hard this is for you and your family.

It sometimes is possible that after chemotherapy the doctors will revisit other options like surgery or radiation therapy. However, it is more likely that your husband will be on some form of chemotherapy until even chemotherapy stops working. Depending on a lot of other factors including his general health and mental attitude, that could be 2+ years form diagnosis.

You and your husband are in my thoughts and prayers.
_________________
Jim
Site Administrator and long-term cancer survivor
1992 Astrocytoma grade 2, left motor strip
2005 Recurrence this time said to be an Oligodendoglioma grade 3, same location.
My Story Part 1: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?p=7350
My Story Part 2: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=8029
Blog http://jimhawkinsport.blogspot.com/

Queensland Girl · Regular Joined: 17 Oct 2007 Posts: 25 Location: Australia

Hello,

My Dad was also diagnosed after the cancer had metastised. He had chemo for about two months - three weeks on, one week off. For a while the tumors were shrinking and everything appeared to be going well, then in October, the doctors found that the chemo has stopped working. They stopped the treatment and only intervened when Dad started to suffer from ascites. He has a small operation at the beginning of November to put a shunt in an artery to help with the fluid build-up, but surgery for the cancer was out of the question.

Tragically for our family, my Dad died on January 7. He was a very strong man, very outdoorsy and active, so as Brainman has said, this disease is very aggressive and unfortunately very difficult to cure.

Your Dad and your family will have difficult days ahead, and I can only recommend that you take each day as it comes, and respect your Dad's wishes even if you don't understand them.

Every fight is different, my Dad was diagnosed in July so we only had six months until the end. Hopefully your Dad will respond well to treatment and have much more time.

You are in my thoughts,

Queensland Girl

suoiruc · Regular Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 13

I have not heard of this kind of responce to chemo. Glad it is working for your father. I would suggest if you see those numbers start to climb, you would consider discontinuing the chemo if the treatments were making him ill. I think that just compounds the problem. There might be some other alternatives and if you want, you can consider the reply I submitted to audib ( two entries- the last one today). Again, I am still learning myself and would like to know if you can tell me which chemo drugs are they using to treat your father?

audib · Regular Joined: 29 Jun 2007 Posts: 13

My father in laws CA-19 numbers were in the thousands too and dropped to in the hundreds after several rounds of chemo and radiation. He is still unable to have surgery because of the tumor's location-no mets but it is too close to the hepatic artery for the surgeon to remove. While I am not a doctor, what I think may be happening is the CA-19 is a measure of tumor activity and perhaps the chemo has slowed down the tumor. It does not unfortunately, mean that they are able to do surgery or change the prognosis.

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