LDH?
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Hello, All, I had read somewhere long ago that LDH was used as a marker for cancer. Does anyone know about that? Mine has gone up each time it’s been checked before my Ipi treatments, and I’m worried.
Speaking of Ipi, I had my 3rd treatment yesterday, and I had an incident. Not long after the treatment started, I had a hard time breathing. They had to stop it, and gave me some meds and started again at a lower rate. I ended up getting through it just fine, and I feel good today.
Blessings to everyone.
Cheris
Cheris, I’m sure that Google could provide a better explanation of LDH than I can provide. It is a tumor marker, but can also become elevated as a result of inflammation (which can be caused by ipi). My LDH levels were higher than normal (in the 200-250 range) around the time I had ipi and have since returned to normal (below 190). I also developed colitis (i.e., inflammation) after my 3rd ipi infusion. I would discuss your concerns with your onc, but I wouldn’t assume that the higher than normal levels are signaling tumor activity. Cheris, This link has a pretty good explanation.
http://skincancer.about.com/od/diagnosis/a/LDH.htm LDH is definitely not the end all as far as a marker for melanoma. Some folks have a high tumor burden and their LDH is hardly impacted and others have swings in their LDH that amount to nothing. The reason why it is sometimes accurate as an indicator for disease is because when there is damage to your tissue inside your body (i.e. cancer on the spread) a by product of that damage is LDH. Some people might experience higher levels of LDH if they strained a muscle or had an intense workout so LDH can fluctuate. How much has your deviated from the normal range? Have your doctors mentioned it? I would think if you are within a couple hundred points of normal it may just be the Ipi having some time of effect.
Brian
Hi, Our doctors have talked about LDH since days 1, especially because my wife started at 2100 (?!). After the start on the BRAF/MEK inhibitors it has now stabilised around 350. It is apparently a good indicators for tumor development (up or down).
By the way it’s important to check these values against YOUR label scales. For example I have read before online that values should be under 200 but on our lab report they mention 300-400 (I believe) as the normal scale. So worth verifying the benchmark.
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