Elevated LDH after Surgery

[aklesevhsoj]

So I was wondering if anyone knows if elevated LDH after surgery is a cause for concern? My LDH was normal before my I/O, and then it was at 440 ml/U 2 weeks post surgery and 455 ml/U at 4 weeks post surgery. My AFP and HCG have been normal at every test.

My doctors said that at 2 weeks after it's probably the result of healing from surgery. But now at 4 weeks out they're still not greatly concerned. I did have my dental cleaning the day before my 4 weeks post surgery LDH test. And I've been trying to exercise the past week by walking for 20 minutes on a steep incline on the treadmill.

[Trekga]

I am new to the board, well my 17 year old son is, but I do know LDH is basically "tissue changes" within the body. It may be different for Seminoma and Nonseminoma.
I believe another community member posted a link to an article. n my son's case is LDH was very elevated pre/o, and still is 4 weeks after, but so are the other two tumor markers.
Hope someone else can chime in.

[S P]

LDH is a very non-specific marker, and not reliable for or used as a primary indicator for TC. My LDH was elevated at my time of diagnosis back in 2011, but that could have been from the fact that I had just done something really stupid a few days prior, and was hurting (and healing) from that.

I wrote this blog at TCAF to clear up misconceptions about markers.

http://www.testicularcancerawarenessfoundation.org/tcaf-blog/2015/3/12/the-truth-about-testicular-cancer-markers-and-detection-with-pregnancy-tests

[Trekga]

Thanks for posting the article!

[Davepet]

As Steve said, LDH is not really a good marker, yes, we have guys here who discovered a recurrence only because of LDH levels, but it is pretty rare. LDH pretty much measures inflammation. It is not specific to cancer of any sort. Certainly, keep monitoring it, but unless it continues to climb I would not be worried just yet.

Dave