My daughter who is a healthy 21 years old young women not complaining of anything did a blood test at university. All the results are normal , but the cea tumor marker is 3.4. Should I worry ?
Hello there.welcome to Chat Doctor forum. Both benign and malignant (harmless and cancerous) conditions can increase the CEA level. The most frequent cancer which causes an increased CEA is cancer of the colon and rectum. Others include cancers of the pancreas, stomach, breast, lung, and certain types of thyroid and ovarian cancer. Benign conditions which can elevate CEA include smoking, infections, inflammatory bowel disease, pancreatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, and some benign tumors in the same organs in which an elevated CEA indicates cancer. Do you have any family history of any kind of colon cancer?? You could get colonoscopy done to rule out any abnormal polyp or growth in colon? Or you could wait for a couple of months to see if the level is increasing? I would suggest you to consult an oncologist and discuss with him about the further management of your daughters condition. Hope this helps. Take care.