Out From Breast Cancer. Had Elevated CEA. Started Biotin, Was On Levothyroxine Which Changed To Tamoxifin. Related?

Posted on Fri, 30 Aug 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 30 Aug 2013 Answered on

Sun, 15 Sep 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : I am almost 6yrs out from Stage II breast Ca. I have never had an elevated CEA till my last check up, not it is 4.4 but just recently started taking Biotin with Vits A,C,Bs. Also on Levothyroxine and was changed to Tamoxifin 12/12 afer 41/2 yrs on Aromatase inhibitors. Could the Tomoxifing have caused a raise in my CEA level. My other tumor markers all normal. Thanks for any help as I have pretty nervous about this.

Answered by Dr. Rohan Khandelwal (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
high levels of CEA should be evaluated

Detailed Answer:
Dear Ma'am,

Sorry to hear about your problem. CEA does not increase because of the medicines which you are taking. The reasons for CEA increase are either smoking or a colonic cancer. If you smoke, you should get this test repeated after a few months. Otherwise you should schedule an appointment with an oncologist and get a colonoscopy done to rule out colonic cancer. CEA can also increase if there is a recurrence of lobular carcinoma of the breast. What was your histo-pathological report?

I hope I have answered your query. Please feel free to clarify any other query.

Rohan Khandelwal
Breast Surgeon

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar