04Jan 2021 by Ronny Allan No Comments
The Invisibility of Appendiceal and Colorectal NETs – do the math

The Invisibility of Appendiceal and Colorectal NETs – do the math

Patient Advocacy
Do the math not the myth In addition to my mountain of evidence against the so-called rarity of Neuroendocrine Neoplasms, a new study from US indicates that many NETs are hidden among colorectal cancer cases in cancer registries. The study reported extraordinary figures of NET cases found when analysing the data.  For years, doctors have been warning about the increasing incidence of colorectal cancer amongst younger people. For that reason, the American Cancer Society recommended people to start screening at a younger age (45 years instead of 50 years) in 2018. This would affect 22 million Americans who now are recommended screening. Colorectal covers the large intestine including the sigmoid colon and rectal cases.   You can read this article from the National Institute of Health covering the issue in US. …
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11Sep 2017 by Ronny Allan 7 Comments
Categories, tissues and primary sites – the lost awareness of Neuroendocrine Cancer

Categories, tissues and primary sites – the lost awareness of Neuroendocrine Cancer

Awareness
BackgroundWhen you look at how cancer is classified and broken down, you can see why Neuroendocrine Neoplasm (the overarching term for Neuroendocrine Tumour and Neuroendocrine Carcinoma) often appears unlisted in certain websites and in certain clinical publications and press releases.  Below, I wanted to cover why that sometimes happens but also why that is undeservedly detrimental to Neuroendocrine Cancer awareness.Cancer ClassificationIn the vast majority of cancer epidemiological papers, it's clear that cancers are classified in two ways: by the type of tissue in which the cancer originates (histological type) and by primary site, or the location in the body where the cancer first developed.Cancer CategoriesFrom a histological standpoint, there are hundreds of different cancers, which are grouped into six major categories:CarcinomaSarcomaMyelomaLeukemiaLymphomaMixed TypesYou can now see why doctors often refer to NETs by…
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17Jun 2017 by Ronny Allan 8 Comments
Immunotherapy: Studies with Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

Immunotherapy: Studies with Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

Clinical Trials, Treatment
IntroductionThere's a lot of Immunotherapy stuff out there! However, I also wanted to break it down and perhaps see if I can pick up the what, when, why, where and how in regard to Neuroendocrine Cancer. It's difficult, not least because the picture is not clear and there is no general roadmap printed, let alone one for Neuroendocrine disease. Immunotherapy for NETs was discussed at ENETS 2017 in Barcelona. The presentation that sticks out was one given by Dr Matthew Kulke, a well-known NET Specialist in Boston. My reaction to the presentation was one of 'expectation management' and caution i.e. it's too soon to know if we will get any success and when we will get it. He also hinted that it's more likely that any success will first be…
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13Jun 2016 by Ronny Allan 4 Comments

Intra-Operative RadioTheraphy (IORT) for Neuroendocrine Cancer – new landmark treatment launch

Awareness, Treatment
[caption id="attachment_6231" align="aligncenter" width="500"] IORT[/caption] New treatments seem to be appearing every month and that is good news for patients.  I have a personal connection to this one though.  In 2014, Chris and I walked along Hadrian's Wall, a 2,000-year-old World Heritage structure in Northern England.  This was part therapy for me but also part fund-raising to help pay for this new treatment which launches today in Southampton General Hospital (UK) which was recently awarded the coveted title of European NET Centre of Excellence (along with Bournemouth and Portsmouth Hospitals).  It is the first ever deployment of this type of treatment in UK and Chris and I were happy to shred the soles of our feet to support this worthy cause, particularly when the two guys behind the idea were my surgeon (Mr Neil…
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20May 2014 by Ronny Allan 1 Comment

Diagnostic Challenges

Awareness, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Treatment
I was checking my statistics this morning and found the most viewed post to date was published on the day Stephen Sutton passed away.   I didn't really want to jump onto the Stephen Sutton bandwagon but when I found on the day of his passing that it had taken 6 months to diagnose his bowel cancer, I knew this would be relevant to Neuroendocrine Cancer awareness, particularly important as it's one of the primary aims of my blog.  I'm thinking the top viewing score to date is not because it mentioned Stephen Sutton (sad as that event was) but because the issues he faced are well known to Neuroendocrine Cancer patients, many of whom are readers. In the past week, the newspapers have published several follow up articles on…
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