December, 2022 - Ronny Allan - Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer

31Dec 2022 by Ronny Allan 4 Comments

Happy New Year from Ronny

Awareness, Inspiration, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Newsletters, Patient Advocacy, Survivorship, Travel with Ronny

Another year of survivalI normally only do a Facebook happy new year, but I wanted to make sure I reached everyone who follows my blog and other social media outlets. All of the outlets above have kept my viewing figures high and although I only beat 2021 viewing figures by almost 10,000, it is an upward trend, so I'll take it!2022 was an amazing year in many respects. I continue to live well with Neuroendocrine Cancer, almost like a chronic disease. I'm not foolish enough to think I don't need surveillance though. That is ongoing, including regular contact when required with my primary and secondary care contacts. The biggest problem I've had this year has been succumbing to "the other big C" (after avoiding it for 28 months!) and…

26Dec 2022 by Ronny Allan 8 Comments

Piss off cancer – 12 years of Christmas and I’m still here!

Awareness, Inspiration

12 Christmas celebrations since diagnosis and I'm still here. My Facebook memories today are full of Christmas day activities including my first Christmas after diagnosis and major surgery in 2010. I remember the whole of my own family attended, my son and daughter's families and 3 grandsons (I now have 4 💜). The main thing I remember was falling asleep after the dinner and I suspect it was due to post-surgical fatigue plus ongoing issues with low haemoglobin and B12 and a long shot - an infusion of tryptophan from the meal 😏 My Facebook memory from today 12 years ago, involves the film Avatar, known for its special effects. It had a special effect in that I saw the first 30 minutes and the last 10 minutes 😊 It…

23Dec 2022 by Ronny Allan 2 Comments

A Christmas 2022 message from Ronny

Awareness, Inspiration, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Newsletters, Patient Advocacy, Survivorship, Travel with Ronny

Background to 2022I've only ever sent these on Facebook but this year, after some challenges, I wanted to make sure I covered anyone who supports my sites via one channel whether it is Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter or direct from a subscription to my website. All of the outlets above have kept my viewing figures high, I guess I can't complain about a 2022 total of around 270,000 blog hits and hitting the milestone of 2 million blog hits in early November - that was a major boost. It takes 3-4 years to get a million hits based on current performance. This has been a challenging year, mainly because the pandemic had some impact on my social media activity and also in terms of growth. 2020 and 2021 were slower than normal…

14Dec 2022 by Ronny Allan No Comments

A multicentre validation of the NETPET score (Dual [68Ga]DOTATATE and [18F]FDG PET/CT in patients with metastatic GEPNENs

Clinical Trials, Patient Advocacy, Survivorship, Treatment

Background It's normally the case that the higher the grade/Ki67 in Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NENs), the less likely the tumours will have somatostatin receptors and therefore be able to take advantage of somatostatin receptor PET (SSTR PET) as the gold standard in nuclear imaging. This is why most grade 3 NENs will receive [18F]FDG PET/CT which finds glycolytic activity in the tumour and predicts an aggressive disease course and normally a higher histological grade. It can also add to prognostic outcomes, which in turn can add to therapy choice decisions. There is an overlap though, particularly with the recognition of well-differentiated Grade 3 Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETs). It is known that some glycolytic activity might be present in some well-differentiated NETs, in particular, grade 3 and the upper range of 2 Neuroendocrine…

12Dec 2022 by Ronny Allan No Comments

Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in the treatment of Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

Clinical Trials, Treatment

What is Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT)? External beam radiotherapy has been around for a while. But the next generation equipment and techniques are gradually being deployed. It's a confusing area with many synonyms which I found when I wrote about the subject in a treatment summary for patients. Some of the sub-components/synonyms may be familiar to you and are often used interchangeably with SBRT; but are actually a brand name (e.g.Cyberknife) or a type (e.g. Proton Beam). You will not find SBRT mentioned in any Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NENs) guidelines and that's because it is not a "standard of care" for this disease. If it is not a standard of care, why did I include SBRT and various techniques in the above summary? I was prompted to include this after…

08Dec 2022 by Ronny Allan No Comments

Lanreotide: 12 more years

Inspiration, Treatment

I once wrote a blog entitled "Four more years". I was watching the US elections back in 2014/15 and that phrase come up after it became the most retweeted tweet on twitter (since been overtaken several times). As a blogger, I was trying to tie in that popular phrase with my lanreotide experience hoping it would drum up some blog views. I can tell you now, it worked as I still get hits today from unsuspecting political buffs! I've since written updates at the 11-year point and will update you each year. This year I wanted to recount my story about the events leading up to Injection 1 on 9th December 2010. 9th December 2010 I was at home recuperating from major surgery wondering what the next event in my…

02Dec 2022 by Ronny Allan No Comments

RonnyAllan.NET – Summary of November 2022

Awareness, Newsletters, Patient Advocacy

In November 2022, I was very active on my blog site as it was World Neuroendocrine Cancer Day on 10th Nov (although every day is the same for me!). The death of Wilko Johnson was unexpected, I tough he would be strumming his guitar for a bit longer. That was the top post by some margin. The 2nd top was surprisingly popular - empathy from an oncology nurse diagnosed with cancer. Only one old favourite made it into the top 5. Here are the 5 most read posts in November 2022. Click on the blue heading or the picture to read. My tribute to Wilko Johnson #NeuroendocrineCancer – Rock and Roll Wilko! - Ronny Allan - Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer Dear every cancer patient I ever took care of, I’m…

01Dec 2022 by Ronny Allan No Comments

In the news – new Neuroendocrine Tumour PET Fluorine-18 based ‘tracer’

Clinical Trials, Patient Advocacy

This should be of interest, particularly to Canadians. (Not to be confused with 18F-FDG which is a different scan). For people waiting for imaging tests to diagnose neuroendocrine cancer, time is of the essence. Now, thanks to researchers at the University of Alberta, a new medical imaging agent for PET scans promises to reduce wait times, while costing less to produce and possibly revealing more of some types of cancer tumors. Ralf Schirrmacher, an oncology imaging professor and member of the Cancer Research Institute of Northern Alberta, and his team at the Medical Isotope and Cyclotron Facility on the U of A's South Campus have been using a state-of-the-art cyclotron—a machine that already supplies the province with medical isotopes used in diagnostic scans—to create a new imaging compound that will…