The Value of the the Rate of Decline of AFP and HCG

[RTC]

It just gave me so much more confident after reading this and seeing that
my marker has declined favorably . . .

http://jco.ascopubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/9/2534

[Physast]

Did the article mention the "favorable" rate of decline? I have been looking for this.

I agree with them that the rate should be taken in to account, even if you have not had Chemo. I had to beg my doctor to let me do blood work every two weeks instead of every two months while my markers were slowly disappearing so that I could track the half life and see what was going on.

He was fine with taking my first markers two months after the surgery and said they should be zero by then. I told him why not just wait two years they should be zero by then too!! I guess I have invested interest in the matter where he does not.

I could be wrong, but I want to know what happens in between the two data points.

[RTC]

I think they use this to determine if initial chemo treatment is working or not .
if not they may want to switch to more aggressive treatment .

There are 3 or 4 journal paper like those too . . . . some think it is not ready
for Clinical use though . .

By favorable decline I think they mean AFP half life of less than 7 days . . .

For my case . . . my AFP dropped from 2600 to 200 in the first round
of chemo (3 weeks) 2600/2/2/2 = 325 . . .

Even though my Oncologist refuse to give me a dosage of Bleomycin
due to low blood count . . . so it was really encouraging for me . .

yeah I agree doctor should take AFP measurement more often ..

My Oncologist wanted to take the test one a month . . . I had to ask him to take the measurement more often too . .