Incidental diagnosis - Ronny Allan - Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer

Tag: Incidental diagnosis

An incidental finding, also known as an incidentaloma, may be defined as an incidentally discovered mass or lesion, detected by CT, MRI, or other imaging modality.

An increase in the utilization of cross-sectional imaging examinations has led to a marked increase in the number of findings detected that are unrelated to the primary objectives of the examination.

Most of these incidentalomas will go on to be scares or something not life threatening and do no harm while that person is still alive. However, often they result in a diagnosis of a new and potentially serious condition and be termed an incidental diagnosis.

04Jul 2023 by Ronny Allan 2 Comments

Best wishes to Joaquin Castro

Awareness

Who is Joaquin Castro? I have an international following so many people outside of USA may not know much about Joaquin Castro. He is an American lawyer and Democratic politician who has represented Texas's 20th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives since 2013. The district includes just over half of his native San Antonio. He was diagnosed with a Small Intestine NET in July 2022 after an incidental finding while he was working in Spain. His car hit a boar on a highway the night before he was due to fly home to the US. He was taken to hospital for a check up. The hospital spotted some abnormalities in his scan and advised him to visit his doctor on return to US. One year later, he…

18May 2023 by Ronny Allan No Comments

Neuroendocrine Cancer: Catch them early, not late!

Awareness, Patient Advocacy

Diagnosing Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NENs). It's no secret that Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NENs) can be difficult to diagnose, particularly well differentiated slow growing types (NETs) which can sometimes be difficult to see. Plus, many patients present with relatively routine day to day symptoms suggesting a myriad of day-to-day illnesses seen daily in every GP/PCP practice. But conversely, many are found incidentally while checking for something else, or in reaction to a visit to the ER/A&E or as a referral by primary care physicians for further checks at secondary facilities. A few examples: 1. Most appendiceal NETs are found when patients present with pain in the right lower quadrant i.e. symptoms of appendicitis. The resulting appendectomy will find the tumour. However, it's true to say that most appendectomies will be connected to appendicitis…

09Feb 2021 by Ronny Allan 6 Comments

Neuroendocrine Cancer – I didn’t hear it coming

Awareness

A Neuroendocrine Cancer awareness post by Ronny Allan. The sooner any cancer can be correctly diagnosed, the better chances of a curative scenario for the person concerned. However, some cancers are in the 'difficult to diagnose' category. Certain types of Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETs) are in this difficult to diagnose category due to the vague symptoms which may be mistaken for other diseases and routine illnesses. However, in many cases which don't seem to make the statistics, it can be incredibly quiet leading to incidental diagnosis including at an advanced stage. It's SNEAKY! Every year the advocacy organisations push out skewed statistics, but few take a wide enough view to get the full spectrum of patient experience. I accept that in some cases, it can be a little bit noisy via…