Hi, I had gone through your question and understand your concerns. But didn t mention the stage of cancer after surgery. The normal range for CEA in an adult non-smoker is Both benign (harmless) and malignant (cancerous) conditions can increase the CEA level. The most frequent cancer which causes an increased CEA is cancer of the colon and rectum. Others include cancers of the pancreas, stomach, breast, lung, and certain types of thyroid and ovarian cancer. Benign conditions which can elevate CEA include smoking, infections, inflammatory bowel disease, pancreatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, and some benign tumors in the same organs in which an elevated CEA indicates cancer. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy can cause a temporary rise in CEA due to the death of tumor cells and release of CEA into the blood stream. Benign disease does not usually cause an increase above 10 ng/ml. The best use of CEA is as a tumor marker, especially for cancers of the gastrointestinal tract. When the CEA level is abnormally high before surgery or other treatment, it is expected to fall to normal following successful surgery to remove all of the cancer. A rising CEA level indicates progression or recurrence of the cancer. In addition, levels 20 ng/ml before therapy may be associated with cancer which has already spread (metastatic disease). In your case not only the CEA level is raised, there is also an enlarging Lymph node; all features favour a possibility of recurrence of colon cancer and warrants addition treatment. Kindly go for PET-CT test and consult oncologist in this matter. Spondylosis should not cause CEA increase. Wish you the best treatment and the best health!