Early diagnosis of late stage cancer

Early diagnosis of late stage cancer

Early diagnosis of late stage cancer What a strange title for a cancer blog post!  However, what a strange cancer I have.  Let me explain - I was really confused in 2010 as to how I could suddenly become a stage 4 Neuroendocrine Cancer patient even though I didn't feel ill enough to see a doctor.  To cut a long story short, you can read about me here. "The cancer has been growing for years" One of the common stories I hear from other patients is they were told their cancer had been growing for some years, up to 10/11/12 in…
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Metastatic Neuroendocrine Tumours – Incurable but treatable

Metastatic Neuroendocrine Tumours – Incurable but treatable

When I was being officially told I had advanced and incurable cancer, I did what most people seem to do on films/TV ..... I asked "how long do I have".  The Oncologist started off with the worst case and 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…
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I’m only as good as my last scan

I’m only as good as my last scan

"I'm only as good as my last scan". I once received this comment in response to one of my posts.  I thought it was a very pragmatic thing for someone to say and it emphasises the importance of scans in advanced metastatic cases or those early in their diagnosis. 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 5-HIAA are clearly useful (for me) but in an ongoing surveillance scenario, they alone would…
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The Classification, Grading and Staging of Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (incorporating WHO 2026 classification changes)

The Classification, Grading and Staging of Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (incorporating WHO 2026 classification changes)

Updated 1st April 2026 This section of my website has been published since 2015 but the most recent update to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Classification of for Digestive Systems is about to be published.  You may see these important publications called 'Blue Books'. The main changes worth mentioning here is the addition of two new types of Gastric NETs -  Types IV and V, a genetic mutation and PPI related respectively.   A larger update will be added when the publication is available online.   The WHO Classification of Endocrine and Neuroendocrine Tumours Words are very important in NENs To enable…
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North of the wall is a dangerous place – you must never go there!

  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…
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