Chromogranin A and Octreotide Scan Results

Hi,

Here's a recap on how I am doing. After becoming sick from Carcinoid on an increasing basis from August 25, 2010 through November 14, 2010, I am now doing much better. Much of the improvement is due to using Welchol almost daily in addition to Octreotide. Prior to the Welchol I was sick every day and had many activities cancelled. I also believe my tumor has gotten smaller; I don't know how else my Chromogranin A values could be below 5!

However, I have been flushing more often for two weeks. Almost every time I walk past a mirror my face is pink. This is another symptom of hormones being dumped into my bloodstream by my tumor. My oncologist, Dr. Z, says the flushing can be caused by serotonin, histamines, or several other chemicals. We have never checked for histamines in my bloodstream; that's one we can check next. I may be flushing more because I was giving myself shots at home every 8 hours for one month instead of getting one long-lasting shot every 28 days. Also, I went off Octreotide in order to have the scans done last week.

I went to the oncologist today. I had an Octreoscan done on November 29-30, then my blood was drawn on December 3. Usually, after my scans are done, my blood levels of my cancer markers are high because I have to go off my usual cancer medication. Please see the previous post for the explanation.

Chromogranin A (CgA) and gastrin are the two cancer markers for carcinoid that sometimes show up in abnormal amounts in my blood tests. [I am trying to type this in columns, but blogspot doesn't seem to do that, so I am working on something that will be organized.]

Here are some past numbers:

Normal Range FASTING CgA : 0-50 ng/mL; Gastrin < or ="100">

[Right here I had 2 paragraphs of data showing my cancer markers for 2009 and 2010. After a few weeks they disappeared. I don't know how I did that! However, in general the numbers for Chromogranin A were varied from 162 to about 50 ng/mL during 2009. For 2010 the numbers began to drop down from 40 to 20 to 15 then 8, 7, 3, 2.8 and 1.5. So praise the Lord! My cancer markers dropped precipitously!]

The great news is that last week, after going off of Octreotide for my scans, my Chromogranin A was down to 1.5 ng/mL. No new tumors were found in the scans, so that for once, my scans and my cancer markers match! The tumors are small and the production of the hormones is down.

Thank you, Father. I know how you love me.

I looked back at the blog I wrote after my pastor prayed for me on October 24, 2010. Possibly this good result from my scan and my blood work is from that night. God began shrinking my tumor down so that the hormones in my blood return to normal even when I wasn't on my medication.