Cancer Staging Archives - Ronny Allan - Living with Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

21Mar 2016 by Ronny Allan 15 Comments

I’m only as good as my last scan

Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Survivorship

[caption id="attachment_5240" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Scanning - a piece of cake![/caption] "I'm only as good as my last scan". I received this comment last week in response to one of my posts and I thought it was a very pragmatic thing for someone to say. A NET patient under surveillance has regular tests at determined intervals but the one that is most likely to spot disease progression, stability or regression is a scan. Markers such as (say) Chromogranin A (CgA) or 5HIAA are clearly useful but in an ongoing surveillance scenario, they alone would not be used as a firm declaration of progression, stability or regression. Every picture tells a story and a scan is normally the confirmation required whether it's a CT, MRI or PET (etc). IF YOU CAN SEE…

02Feb 2016 by Ronny Allan 21 Comments

Neuroendocrine Cancer – Incurable is not untreatable

Awareness, Inspiration, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Patient Advocacy, Survivorship, Treatment

OPINION. When I was being officially told I had an advanced and incurable cancer, I did what most people seem to do on films/TV ..... I asked "how long do I have". The Oncologist said " ... perhaps just months". That must have been quite a shock because for a few moments after that, I heard nothing - my brain was clearly still trying to process those words - I wasn't even feeling unwell! The really important bit I missed was him go on to say "...but with the right treatment, you should be able to live for a lot longer". Fortunately, my wife Chris heard it all and I was refocused. "OK Doc - let's go" I said. Always take someone with you to take notes at important meetings with Oncologists! I continue to see…

27Oct 2015 by Ronny Allan 23 Comments

Neuroendocrine Neoplasms – Grade and Stage (incorporating WHO 2017 changes)

Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Technical NETs

One of the most discussed and sometimes confusing subjects on forums is the staging and grading of Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NENs). Mixing them up is a common error and so it's important to understand the difference despite the apparent complexity. If I was to make a list of questions for my specialist/Oncologist at diagnosis, it would include "What is the stage, grade and differentiation of my cancer". To enable me to synchronise with the documented guidance, I'm going to use the following WHO 2017 approved terms in this post: Neuroendocrine Neoplasm (NEN) - all types of Neuroendocrine tumour of whatever grade (please note Neoplasm is another word for tumour) Neuroendocrine Tumour (NET) - all well-differentiated tumours (an explanation of differentiation will be provided below) Neuroendocrine Carcinoma (NEC) - all poorly differentiated…

22Apr 2015 by Ronny Allan 40 Comments

Carcinoid vs Neuroendocrine

Awareness, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Patient Advocacy, Technical NETs

OPINION There's a constant debate regarding the validity of the term 'Carcinoid'. I've posted about this a few times and as far as I know, the debate has been raging for some years. You may have noticed that 'Carcinoid' is often used as a standalone word and tends not to be suffixed with the word 'Cancer' or 'Tumour' - unlike Bowel Cancer, Breast Cancer, Prostrate Cancer, Lung Cancer, Brain Tumour, etc. Nobody goes around saying "Breast" or "Bowel" do they? But they happily say "Carcinoid". Unfortunately, the term ‘Carcinoid’ has become entrenched in both pathology and clinical literature over the past 100 years. The main problem with the word Carcinoid is that it means different things to different people. Some use the term almost exclusively to designate serotonin-producing tumours that arise from the enterochromaffin cells that can…

13May 2014 by Ronny Allan 3 Comments

North of the wall is a dangerous place – you must never go there!

Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer

There was a 60 minute silence last night as another episode of Game of Thrones was aired. Not a Facebook post or tweet in sight. This has to be 'up there' in a list of the best TV series ever? Don't know about you but I'm sometimes confused about who is who and how they are related and/or connected! (see useful chart at the bottom of this post) Chris and I love the introduction bit. She likes the music, I like the geography. There are some obvious correlations there, e.g. 'The Wall' is meant to relate to Hadrian's Wall with those horrible barbarian Scots to the north :-) Thank God Hadrian's Wall and the climate in particular, isn't as bad as portrayed on GOT! I did contemplate using 'trousers' as…