Tumor Markers

This was a great week with scan updates. As always- I am not a medical professional and this is my interpretation of everything the Dr has said. Yesterday I got a CT scan. The liver surgeon ordered it to have better images of my hepatic artery for my upcoming surgery but we were also able to get a quick look at the images to see the tumors- AND THEY ARE SHRINKING!!!! The initial CT scan we did back in December only picked up 2 of the tumors on my liver and it was the MRI that showed 5 so I will be going back in 3 days for an MRI to really get a good look at everything. 

My CEA levels have been dropping as well!  It started around 9.5 and is now at 1.01

We also got back the results from my "liquid biopsy"- its basically a really fancy blood test. It analyzes circulating tumor DNA. The tumor marker it picked up was TP53 and back in Dec it showed 14.9% and it is now showing .8% The fancy blood tests take about 3 weeks to get the results back which is why I did the test early feb and am just now seeing the results. 

Dr Kasi also ordered an even fancier liquid biopsy that gets down to the parts per million and 
I will have the blood draw for that before my next infusion. He also plans to do a signatera blood test (likely after my liver surgery). He said they make the test with a piece of the tumor they took from my colon. And it will act as a baseline for future testing in the years to come to help detect any early signs of cancer. 

Dr Kasi is brilliant and I am blessed to have him on my team. I truly feel like he cares about me as a patient.