Increased AFP levels may indicate the
presence of cancer
, most commonly liver cancer, cancer of the ovary, or germ cell tumor of the testicles. However, not every liver, ovarian, or testicular cancer will produce significant quantities of AFP.
What happens if AFP is high?
If your results show high levels of AFP, it may confirm a diagnosis of
liver cancer
, or cancer of the ovaries or testicles. Sometimes, high levels of AFP can be a sign of other cancers, including Hodgkin disease and lymphoma, or noncancerous liver disorders.
What is considered a high AFP level?
An AFP level between 10 ng/mL to 20 ng/mL is normal for adults. An extremely high level of AFP in your blood—
greater than 400 ng/mL
—could be a sign of liver tumors. High levels of AFP may mean other cancers, including Hodgkin disease, lymphoma, and renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer).
What does it mean when your tumor markers are high?
High tumor marker levels can be
a sign of cancer
. Along with other tests, tumor marker tests can help doctors diagnose specific types of cancer and plan treatment. Tumor marker tests are most commonly used to do the following: Learn if a person has cancer.
What is an abnormal AFP result?
What do the results mean? If your results show higher than normal AFP levels, it may mean your baby has a neural tube defect such as
spina bifida
, a condition in which the bones of the spine don’t close around the spinal cord, or anencephaly, a condition in which the brain does not develop properly.
What causes AFP levels to rise?
AFP levels are normally elevated
when a baby is born and then decline rapidly
. Outside of pregnancy and birth, liver damage and certain cancers can increase AFP levels significantly. This test measures the level of AFP in your blood. AFP is produced whenever liver cells are regenerating.
What happens if an AFP test is positive?
What does it mean if my AFP PLUS test result is screen positive? A positive AFP PLUS test means that you are
in a higher likelihood group for having a baby with a neural tube defect or a chromosome abnormality
. However, it does not prove by itself that there is anything wrong with the pregnancy.
How do I lower my AFP?
Iron reduction therapy
significantly reduced the median level of serum AFP from 13 to 7 ng/mL, ALT from 96 to 50 IU/L, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) from 55 to 28 IU/L, and ferritin from 191 to 10 ng/mL ( for each).
What is a normal CA 125 level?
The normal value is
less than 46 U/mL
. If your CA 125 level is higher than normal, you may have a benign condition, or the test result could mean that you have ovarian, endometrial, peritoneal or fallopian tube cancer. Your doctor may recommend other tests and procedures to determine your diagnosis.
How accurate is AFP test?
The
test has a false positive rate of 5 percent
. This means that 5 percent of the time, the test is positive but the baby does NOT have an open spine.
How reliable are tumor markers?
There has been no evidence to prove that tumor markers are
100 percent reliable
for determining the presence or absence of cancer. Many circumstances, such as other health issues or disease, can contribute to raised tumor marker levels.
What do tumor markers show?
A tumor marker is anything present in or produced by cancer cells or other cells of the body in response to cancer or certain benign (noncancerous) conditions that
provides information about a cancer
, such as how aggressive it is, what kind of treatment it may respond to, or whether it is responding to treatment.
How accurate is tumor marker ca15 3?
CA 15-3 in the diagnostic and follow up of patients with breast cancer has a sensitivity ranging from 75-76.9% and
the specificity ranging from 85.5-93%
.
Can fatty liver cause elevated AFP?
The presence of hepatic inflammation and/or fibrosis
may be the underlying cause of increased serum AFP levels in patients with severe fatty liver. Necrosis or active regeneration may also play a role in these patients.
What can cause a false positive AFP test?
False-positive results may be because
the mother is carrying twins
, inaccurate dates, a low birth weight infant, a large placenta or a sample that was contaminated. Abnormal results are also associated with the fact that the baby may be a girl.
How do you interpret AFP results?
Alpha fetoprotein normal range is below ten ng/ml. In the case of adults who aren’t pregnant, if the results show that there is a high level of AFP, then it indicates that you have liver disease. The AFP levels fluctuate throughout pregnancy. In pregnant women, a higher AFP level indicates Spina bifida in your fetus.
