Tumor markers and liver function

[Stephanie]

Hi, all. I usually post with questions regarding my mom, but this time I have one about myself. You gals are such a wealth of information, I thought someone might have an idea about my situation.

I am Stage IIa, with clean scans before chemo except for a 2mm spot on my liver that they swear is a cyst. I started my six cycles of FAC in August. Since starting the chemo, my ALT, AST, Alk phosphate and LDH enzymes have doubled with each chemistry panel (which has been pulled every two-three weeks). All four are out of the normal range, although not by enough to alarm the docs. Apparently the 5-FU is very hard on the liver--I'm a little worried about how high the enzymes will go, since they rose quickly after just 2 rounds of chemo.

The other part of this situation is my tumor markers. The CA 27-29 was drawn before my surgery, and was 28.1 while the tumor was still in me. After surgery, the markers dropped to 15.9. I was thrilled, and figured this drop also meant that I'm sensitive to the markers. Three weeks later, the CA 27-29 jumped to 34.8, which is higher than what it was when I still had the tumor in me. The number is still in the "normal" range, but yikes.

I find it hard to believe that I suddenly developed mets in a couple of months. The only thing I worry about is that somehow something was missed on the PET, as I have lobular cancer, and the mets can be sneaky. So, my question is--do you think the irritation to the liver from the 5-FU could be making the CA 27-29 rise?

Thanks in advance!