CEA RESULT IS WORRISOME

CAN HAVING H. PYLORI CAUSE CEA LEVELS TO BE ELEVATED.  I JUST HAD A RT. HEMICOLECTOMY BECAUSE OF A TURBULOVILLOUS ADENOMA.  EVERYTHING CAME BACK CANCER FREE IN PATHOLOGY WITH 17 LYMP NODES TESTED.  MY CEA BEFORE SURGERY WAS 9.8.  AFTER SURGERY WENT TO 8.6.  THE DOCTOR DOSN'T SEEM SATISFIED AND WANTS TO LOOK ELSEWHERE.  MY H. PYLORI HASN'T BEEN TREATED YET.  I ALSO HAVE FIBROMYALGIA.  CAN THIS HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT?  PLEASE HELP, I'M SO ANXIOUS.


This discussion is related to CEA rising after surgery.

[CalGal]

Heartangles, you need to ask your doc directly why he's not satisfied with what's going on.

To my knowledge, both benign and malignant conditions can increase CEA levels, but I'm not sure about H. pylori.

Cancers that I know can result in increased CEA are those of the colon and rectum, as well as cancers of the pancreas, stomach, breast, lung, and certain types of thyroid and ovarian cancer. Benign conditions that elevate CEA levels include: smoking, infections, inflammatory bowel disease, pancreatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, and some benign tumors in the same organs in which an elevated CEA indicates cancer. But, in general, benign disease does not usually cause an increase above about 10 ng/ml.