NETSPOT Archives - Ronny Allan - Living with Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

30Aug 2018 by Ronny Allan 2 Comments

64Cu-DOTATATE – a potential expansion of the Somatostatin Receptor PET Imaging for Neuroendocrine Cancer?

Clinical Trials, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Technical NETs, Treatment

Edit 10 Jan 2019: RadioMedix and Curium Announce FDA Fast Track Designation For 64Cu-Dotatate. Read more by clicking here. Edit 22 Aug 2019. US FDA announced approval of Ga68 DOTATOC. There's an overlap to this story. Read more here. Curium and RadioMedix Inc. announce an exclusive agreement to develop and commercialize 64Cu-Dotatate, an investigational positron emission tomography (PET) diagnostic agent for patients with Neuroendocrine Tumors (NETs). RadioMedix is currently engaged in Phase III clinical trials of the agent and expects to file a New Drug Application with the Food and Drug Administration in 2019. This partnership builds on the initial development work conducted by RadioMedix and will benefit from Curium’s regulatory, manufacturing, distribution, and commercial expertise. The radionuclide is not new, it's been in use for some time, mainly in…

21Jul 2018 by Ronny Allan 14 Comments

Neuroendocrine Cancer: Ga68 PET Scan – a game changer?

Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Survivorship, Technical NETs, Treatment

When I was offered my very first Ga68 PET/CT at a 6 monthly surveillance meeting in May 2018, I was both excited and apprehensive. Let me explain below why I had a mix of emotions. You can read about my Ga68 PET experience here. I was diagnosed in 2010 with metastatic NETs clearly showing on CT scan, the staging was confirmed via an Octreotide Scan which in addition pointed out two further deposits above the diaphragm (one of which has since been dealt with). In addition to routine surveillance via CT scan, I had two further Octreotide Scans in 2011 and 2013 following 3 surgeries, these confirmed the surveillance CT findings of remnant disease. The third scan in 2013 highlighted an additional lesion in my thyroid (still under a watch…

31May 2018 by Ronny Allan 14 Comments

Gallium 68 PET Scans – Into the Unknown

Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Survivorship, Technical NETs

OPINION Cancer is a growth industry ...literally! More people are being diagnosed than ever before. Fortunately, more people are surviving than ever before. This is against a backdrop of better awareness, better screening in the big population cancers, and to a certain extent better diagnostic tools, all of which is leading to earlier diagnosis. So how does this affect Neuroendocrine Cancer? According to the latest SEER database figures for Neuroendocrine Cancer, one reason for the 7 fold increase in incidence rates since the 1970s is all of those things above including better diagnostics. This has led to a revised set of epidemiological information in many countries that have made the effort to accurately update their cancer registries and there are consistent reports of incidence rates way beyond the recognised rare…

08May 2017 by Ronny Allan 45 Comments

Lutetium Lu 177 dotatate (Lutathera®) – PRRT

Clinical Trials, Technical NETs, Treatment

Short PRRT Primer What is Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT)? For those who are still not sure what it's all about. This is a non-surgical treatment which is normally administered intravenously. It's based on the use of somatostatin receptors to attract a 'radiopeptide'. The radiopeptide is a combination of a somatostatin analogue and a radioactive material. As we already know, somatostatin analogues (i.e. Lanreotide/Octreotide) are a NET cell targeting drug, so when combined with radioactivity, it binds with the NET cells and delivers a high dose of targeted radiation to the cancer while preserving healthy tissue in an attempt to reduce or kill tumours. In general, patients tend to receive up to 4 sessions spaced apart by at least 2 months. PRRT will not work on all NETs and not…

21Feb 2017 by Ronny Allan No Comments

Recent Progress in NET Management – Positive presentation from Jonathan R Strosberg MD

Awareness, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Patient Advocacy, Technical NETs, Treatment

I recently wrote a blog called Neuroendocrine Cancer – Exciting Times Ahead! I wrote that on a day I was feeling particularly positive and at the time, I wanted to share that positivity with you. I genuinely believe there's a lot of great things happening. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot still to be done, particularly in the area of diagnosis and quality of life after being diagnosed. However, this is a really great message from a well-known NET expert. In an interview with OncLive, Jonathan R. Strosberg, MD, associate professor at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida, discussed his presentation on NETs at a recent 2016 Symposium, and shed light on the progress that has been made in this treatment landscape. OncLive: Please highlight some of the main points from your…

18Jan 2017 by Ronny Allan 5 Comments

Theranostics for Neuroendocrine Cancer – A Find and Destroy Mission

Awareness, Clinical Trials, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Technical NETs, Treatment

[caption id="attachment_14426" width="1200"] Courtesy of Pashtoon Kasi MD on Twitter https://twitter.com/pashtoonkasi/status/1078675398601396224[/caption] Theranostics is a joining of the words therapeutics and diagnostics. You may also see it conveyed as 'Theragnostics' and these terms are interchangeable. The basic aim of theranotistics is to find and then destroy the 'bad guys'. With Neuroendocrine Cancer, finding the tumours (the bad guys) can often be a challenge - they can be small and/or difficult to find - they are sometimes expert at camouflage. Moreover, once found, they can then be difficult to treat (destroy), as they can often prove resistant to conventional cancer drugs and many are inoperable due to sheer quantity, spread and positioning. When they are found and identified, it's also really helpful to know from the intelligence gathered, how successful the destroy…

02Nov 2016 by Ronny Allan 9 Comments

Neuroendocrine Cancer – Exciting Times Ahead!

Inspiration, Survivorship, Technical NETs, Treatment

In the last 12-24 months, there seems to have been announcement after announcement of new and/or upgraded/enhanced diagnostics and treatment types for Neuroendocrine Cancer. Scans, radionuclide therapies, combination therapies, somatostatin analogues, biological therapies, etc. Some of the announcements are just expansions of existing therapies having been approved in new (but significant) regions. Compared to some other cancers, even those which hit the headlines often, we appear to be doing not too badly. However, the pressure needs to stay on, all patients need access to the best diagnostics and treatments for them; and at the requisite time. There's even more in the pipeline and I'm hoping to continue to bring you news of new stuff as I have been doing for the last year. Some of these new diagnostics and treatments will benefit eligible patients who are…

21Mar 2016 by Ronny Allan 15 Comments

I’m only as good as my last scan

Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Survivorship

[caption id="attachment_5240" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Scanning - a piece of cake![/caption] "I'm only as good as my last scan". I received this comment last week in response to one of my posts and I thought it was a very pragmatic thing for someone to say. A NET patient under surveillance has regular tests at determined intervals but the one that is most likely to spot disease progression, stability or regression is a scan. Markers such as (say) Chromogranin A (CgA) or 5HIAA are clearly useful but in an ongoing surveillance scenario, they alone would not be used as a firm declaration of progression, stability or regression. Every picture tells a story and a scan is normally the confirmation required whether it's a CT, MRI or PET (etc). IF YOU CAN SEE…