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Hi, again..smile.
Julie, yours is a REALLY good question that alas...I can NOT answer. In my experience, most of the CA marker series can be quite commonly elevated due to infection. This is probably one reason many oncs just can't trust them when used alone. This is especially true of the CA 125...which, though used sometimes in ovarian cancer and/or mets..can often simply be signalling infection like a serious PID or an intestinal infection --especially in the mucosal linings. Infection is more often cited if the CA 125 is only slightly elevated...say between 40 and 100...if the CA 125 exceeds 200, though, ovarian involvement is usually considered or at least checked out.
Best educated guess...I would surmise that the her-2 could not be elevated by common infections and certainly NOT by viral infections such as the common cold...but as there are at least a few specialized bacteria out there that are at least proven to raise cox-2 and her-2 levels among other things...such as when H. pylori causes stomach and other digestive tract cancers, it is conceivable, at least, that it could raise the her-2 serum markers. Whether this can also relate to the over-expression of her-2 in breast cancers has not been proven, though it has been quietedly suggested in a paper from a German lab and at least one division of the NIH eye institute is looking into whether H. pylori can cause eye tumors outside the digestive tract...which, oddly enough, may be caused in some women by the simple act of licking their finger to remove a smudge of mascara, near the eye membrane...thus, transmitting the H. pylori bacteria from the saliva to the eye where eventually a ulcer-like lesion or even tumor can erupt.
The serum her-2 test is supposed to be measuring ONLY the nanoliters (..?? I think) of her-2 protein in the blood that is being pumped out by the protein making factories in your cells that are over-producing her-2 neu. It is supposedly the over-abundance of this protein in our bio-chemistries that we tend to think fuels certain breast cancers the way ER+ can. I have a friend who is a researcher familiar with this test at Quest Labs. I can call him to get the scoop.
The other time when serum her-2 levels can possibly be falsely elevated though, is when you take your blood work RIGHT after having the herceptin infusion. This can cause a false positive or false level HIGHER than a normal reading. Best to consistently take your markers just BEFORE your next Herceptin infusion so as to chart them at their highest...smile..better to know a dark and terrible truth...smile..than not to know it...there's TONS of hope for us all!!! Do not despair. Best regards, Gina
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