??? Tumor Markers after WBR

Hello all -

Lisa went to her Onc. today for her 3-week Herceptin which is always preceeded with blood work-up including liver function test. To make a long story short, her CEA Tumor Markers are way up after WBR. (Although I do not have the paperwork in front of me right now, I believe it jumped from a 4 to a 32).

The Onc. says that this can be caused by the body "sloughing" off cancer cells after radiation, but I was curious about some of your individual experiences after radiation treatments.

Any thoughts/ideas/help?

I am having WBR right now. 8/20 today. Not much side effect for now. did not do chemical test yet.9/8/04 c27,28 was 28. My decadron 4mmg/day since 9/11/04.(wbr started 9/14/04. Doc. asked me to drop decadron to 2mg/day start tomorrow! only change is my WBC, it was 6.7 last week, but this week today, it is 12.8. I was wondering that maybe the side effect will come out later! I drink a lot of bottle water(10/day. and I did tai chi 30-60min fer day. I restted if I need too. Hope Lisa is doing well. I will pray for her.