16Sep 2018 by Ronny Allan 3 Comments
Diabetes – The NET Effect

Diabetes – The NET Effect

Diet and Nutrition, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Survivorship, The NET Effect Series
My chest infection is now settled, as too is the excitement and apprehension behind my first ever Ga68 PET - the outcome of that is still a work in progress. Earlier this year, my thyroid 'lesion' on watch and wait was given a 'damping down' with the prescription of a thyroid hormone supplement but I await a re-ignition of that small bush fire downstream. Bubbling behind the scenes and clamoring for attention is the spiking of my blood glucose test results and I was very recently declared 'at risk' for diabetes One of my followers entitled a post in my group with "The hits keep coming" in reference to encountering yet another problem in the journey with Neuroendocrine Cancer. I now know how she feels, this issue is a bit…
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05Dec 2016 by Ronny Allan 6 Comments
Neuroendocrine – don’t let it be a Crisis

Neuroendocrine – don’t let it be a Crisis

Awareness, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Patient Advocacy, Treatment
Update 15th November 2021.   A study presented at NANETS 2021 produced data to suggest the causes and treatment for carcinoid crisis have been wrong and that a new model is required.  Read the article here or by clicking on the picture.Author's note:  This is probably a controversial conclusion in some circles and it's worth pointing out that so-called 'carcinoid crisis' isn't going away, just the need for time-consuming and expensive, and apparently ineffective according to the study, perioperative protection.  And the study also noted that medication to treat complications was still required.  I don't believe we should immediately dismiss this conclusion as one of the authors is a 'big hitter' NET Specialist surgeon (Dr Rodney Pommier) whose job is to keep patients safe on the operating table. The original article…
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28Sep 2016 by Ronny Allan 23 Comments
Neuroendocrine Cancer – tumour markers and hormone levels

Neuroendocrine Cancer – tumour markers and hormone levels

A Spotlight on NENs - Testing Series, Patient Advocacy
BackgroundSome people on hear the terms "tumour markers" and "hormone levels" when they are diagnosed with Neuroendocrine Cancer.  Most of them will have had a form of medical testing at some point in their life, i.e. the sampling and testing of blood, urine, saliva, stool or body tissue. In a nutshell, the medical staff are just measuring the content of a 'substance' and then taking a view whether this is normal or not based on pre-determined ranges. These tests are normally done as a physician's reaction to symptom presentation or maintenance/surveillance of an existing diagnosed condition. Sometimes, abnormal results will lead to more specialist tests.In cancer, these tests are frequently called 'markers'. Most tumour markers are made by normal cells as well as by cancer cells; however, they are produced at…
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04Apr 2016 by Ronny Allan 3 Comments
Somatostatin Analogues and delivery methods in the pipeline

Somatostatin Analogues and delivery methods in the pipeline

Awareness, Clinical Trials and Research, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer
This is my live blog post covering new developments in the area of new Somatostatin Analogues and new delivery systems. AbstractAs most of you will be aware, there are currently two main types of Somatostatin Analogues (SSA) in use for the treatment of mainstream Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETs) - Octreotide and Lanreotide.  You can click on the links for information on both of these well-known NET treatments.  This post will focus on the not so well known and anything in the pipeline including different delivery systems.Those who have read the Octreotide/ Lanreotide patient leaflets will know those SSAs are also used in the treatment of a condition known as Acromegaly. You can see why the drug is used for both as they control the release of excess secretions of various substances, a…
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