Neuroendocrine Cancer:  Catch them early, not late!

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…
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Neuroendocrine Cancer – I didn’t hear it coming

Neuroendocrine Cancer – I didn’t hear it coming

Awareness
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 oversecretion of hormones causing hormonal syndromes, and this…
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