Laparoscopic surgery Archives

21 Jan 2025

12 Comments

Neuroendocrine Cancer – my liver surgery April 2011

Treatment5-HIAA, Adhesions, Advanced neuroendocrine cancer, Carcinoid syndrome, CT scan, Debulking surgery, Lanreotide, Laparoscopic surgery, Liver embolization, Liver metastases, Metastatic Neuroendocrine Cancer, Octreotide, Octreotide scan

From day 1 of my diagnosis, I knew my liver was going to need some attention, but I had always known that total removal of all tumours would not be possible - the diagnostic scan confirmed I had an incurable disease. This critical organ did in fact produce the biopsy confirming Neuroendocrine Cancer. The early scans indicated multiple liver lesions and an Octreotide scan reported several with quite avid isotope activity. However, as you can see from my clinical history, they first stabilised my syndrome via daily Octreotide so my tumours were subdued ready for major surgery which took…

06 Aug 2024

By Ronny Allan

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Biopsies – tissue is the issue!

Patient AdvocacyBiopsy, Bone marrow biopsy and aspiration, Bronchoscopy, Core Biopsy, Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), Endoscopy, EUS, Fine needle aspiration (FNA), Laparoscopic surgery, Liver metastases

First published 19th July 2023. Major update on 6th August 2024 to including key marker and histopathological tissue biomarkers used in Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NENs). My diagnostic background On 19th July 2010, I had a liver biopsy. This followed some low haemoglobin (Hb) and some weight loss reported to my GP surgery in May, I met with a specialist on 8th July and after sending me straight for a CT scan on the same day, the output from that CT confirmed something was drastically wrong. Clearly CT scans don't diagnose cancer including grade, so I eventually had to have a liver…

14 Apr 2024

By Ronny Allan

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Piss off cancer, it’s 13 years since my liver surgery!

Patient Advocacy, Survivorship, TreatmentAdvanced neuroendocrine cancer, Cancer survivor, Laparoscopic surgery, Liver metastases, Small intestine NET (SI NET), Surgery

I'm still here I was 54 years and 9 months old at diagnosis on 26th July 2010. For the first few months, I had no idea what the outcome would be. What I did know at the time, given the final staging, grading, and other damage that was accumulated via various tests, checks, and scans; is that my body had been slowly dying. Without intervention I may not be here now to tell you this tale and who knows what would be listed on my death certificate. It’s amazing to think something that would eventually kill me without intervention, didn’t have…

23 Jul 2023

By Ronny Allan

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A tumour-finding probe improves the ‘effectiveness of surgery in Gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumours

Clinical Trials and Research, Patient Advocacy, TreatmentBowel surgery, Curative surgery, Debulking surgery, Gastrointestinal NET (GI-NET), Laparoscopic surgery, Small intestine NET (SI NET), Surgery

A major challenge that cancer surgeons face currently is that there are no reliable methods to identify the tissue type during surgery (other than fast tracking tissue sampling). The surgical procedures, therefore, rely extensively on the experience and judgment of the surgeon to decide on how much tissue to remove around the tumor margins. Sometimes this can result in the removal of excessive healthy tissue. On the other hand, not removing some tumour cells can often need a follow-up surgery to remove residual cancer tissue. This just adds to patient morbidity and long-term detrimental effects on the patient’s outcome. The use…

Tag: Laparoscopic surgery