23Oct 2022 by Ronny Allan No Comments
Benign liver lesions and cysts – something or nothing?

Benign liver lesions and cysts – something or nothing?

Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Patient Advocacy
BackgroundI wanted to focus on two terms "lesion" and "cyst" given these are mentioned all the time in my online patient group, on many occasions by a worried newly diagnosed patient who has just been told (or read before an appointment) this was found during diagnostic scans.  Sometimes these are described by doctors as "liver lesions". Lesion is defined as "An area of abnormal tissue. A lesion may be benign (not cancer) or malignant (cancer)".  The majority of liver lesions are noncancerous (benign) and will not be related to Neuroendocrine Cancer. Many lesions are detected during imaging tests for unrelated health conditions. Although most lesions aren’t harmful, it’s still critical to receive a proper diagnosis.  This is particularly important if these lesions are in addition to known cancerous ones included with…
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02Oct 2017 by Ronny Allan 10 Comments
Genetics and Neuroendocrine Tumors

Genetics and Neuroendocrine Tumors

Awareness, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Survivorship
In my article 'Ever wonder what caused your NET', I concluded that currently, the only known scientifically explained causes for NETs were hereditary/genetic in nature.  This is mostly associated with those who have MEN syndromes (yes, they are a syndrome not a type of tumour)[caption id="attachment_13063" align="aligncenter" width="530"] Click to read my MEN article[/caption]There also strong connections with and a few other less common types of NET including Pheochomocytoma/Paraganglioma (Pheo/Para) and Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma (MTC) (the familial version of MTC is often referred to as FMTC). However, please note this does not mean that all those diagnosed with pancreatic, parathyroid, pituarity, Pheo/Para and MTC tumours, will have any hereditary or genetic conditions, many will simply be sporadic tumors.[caption id="attachment_16075" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Click to read my article on Pheochromocytoma and Paraganglioma[/caption]In recent…
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