I campaign hard for Neuroendocrine Cancer awareness including continually pointing out that a Neuroendocrine Cancer with a pancreatic primary is NOT Pancreatic Cancer as is often quoted in the press. The two main reasons I take up these campaigns are as follows:

1. They are totally different cancers despite an anatomical relationship.  Although they can share a similar presentation, they can have different signs, different treatments, and vastly different prognostic outcomes. Anyone looking for useful information on either needs to be very careful on interpretation, they could end up with very bad advice and in some situations, become more concerned than they should be. (particularly with the prognostics). See more below.

2. These two different cancer types have different awareness organisations, patient support groups and patient leaders/advocates. In most cases, vastly different awareness messages. Both organisations and advocates need all the help they can get, they need all the resources and funding they can get.

Both Pancreatic Cancer and Neuroendocrine Cancer are diseases that need maximum publicity, both types of cancer have their own unique situations, thus why the awareness messages can be so vastly different. It’s really important, therefore, that publicity surrounding famous patients be attributed to the correct cancer type in order that the advocate organisations and supporters can gain maximum benefit to forward their causes. Unfortunately, thanks to doctors and media, this very often doesn’t work out in favour of Neuroendocrine Cancer due to the Human Anatomy of Neuroendocrine Cancer (this problem goes beyond the pancreas).