Neuroendocrine Cancer: Troublesome Thyroids
In 2013, just when I thought everything seemed to be under control, I was told I had a 'lesion' on the left upper lobe of my thyroid and that they had been monitoring it for a while. Of course at the time, you immediately assume NET. It was a bit of a shock as I had already been subjected to some radical surgery and wondered if this was just part of the relentless march of metastatic NET disease. However, that would be a simple explanation.The thyroid gland does get mentioned frequently in NET patient discussions but many of the conversations…
Thyroid nodules – something or nothing?
I came across this excellent summary of Thyroid nodules from the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons which links to a similar European one. It confirms much of what I wrote in my blog post "Troublesome Thyroids" in regard to my own thyroid issues. I'm thankful to the AAES for promoting this on social media. I wanted to focus on the issue of Thyroid nodules given I see these mentioned all the time in my online patient group. Clearly, when you already have a cancer diagnosis, the discovery of more issues on top of that is of concern to patients. Many are incidental…
It’s been 10 years since I saw a scalpel (….but my surgeon is still on speed dial)
In 2012, I had a bunch of lymph nodes removed. Two separate areas were resected, only one was showing growth but both were showing up as hotspots on an Octreoscan. I had known since shortly after diagnosis in 2010 that 'hotspots' were showing in my left 'axillary' lymph nodes (armpit) and my left 'supraclavicular fossa' (SCF) lymph nodes (clavicle area). Some 10 months previously, I had a major liver resection, and 5 months prior to the liver resection, I had a small intestinal primary removed including work on some associated complications. There had always been a plan to optimise cytoreduction of my…
Clinical Trial: Neuroendocrine Cancer drug in the pipeline – Fosbretabulin Tromethamine CA4P (incl combo with Everolimus)
{NEW} added 4 June 2019 From ASCO 2019 conference extract: Of the 17 patients enrolled, 16 completed the 12-week trial. One patient was not evaluable due to noncompliance. No DLTs were observed at day 21. The highest dose of 10 mg daily oral everolimus in combination with weekly 60mg/m2 IV fosbretabulin is the RP2D. No grade 4 or 5 toxicities were noted. Grade 3 toxicities were seen in 5 patients; abdominal pain and hyperglycemia (not related to study drug), fatigue (possibly related), decreased lymphocyte count and anemia (related). Several patients had delay in treatment due to grade 2 AE’s (GI…