Tag: TNM staging system

A system to describe the amount and spread of cancer in a patient’s body, using TNM.

T describes the size of the tumor and any spread of cancer into nearby tissue;

N describes spread of cancer to nearby lymph nodes;

M describes metastasis (spread of cancer to other parts of the body).

This system was created and is updated by the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), ENETS also has definitions.

The TNM staging system is used to describe most types of cancer.

27Oct 2015 by Ronny Allan 25 Comments

Neuroendocrine Neoplasms – Grade and Stage (incorporating WHO 2019 changes)

Patient Advocacy

One of the most discussed and sometimes confusing subjects on forums is the staging and grading of Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NENs). Mixing them up is a common error and so it's important to understand the difference despite the apparent complexity. If I was to make a list of questions for my specialist/Oncologist at diagnosis, it would include "What is the stage, grade and differentiation of my cancer". To enable me to synchronise with the documented guidance, I'm going to use the following WHO 2019 approved terms in this post and then provide an update of the key WHO 2019 changes below.Neuroendocrine Neoplasm (NEN) - all types of Neuroendocrine tumour of whatever grade (please note Neoplasm is another word for tumour)Neuroendocrine Tumour (NET) - all well-differentiated tumours, Grade 1,2 or 3 (an…

Whenever I post about a new trial or study, some people get excited without understanding that these new treatments and capabilities can very often take years to come to fruition and it’s also possible that clinical trials can be halted, or that national approval agencies will not approve the final product. Please bear that in […]

Blog review and top 10 for 2021: RonnyAllan.NET

I should be happy with over a quarter of a million views in 2021 but I’m not! Like 2020, my figures are down on previous years as the pandemic seems to have changed viewing habits, not to mention my own bandwidth during this period. I created my private Facebook group not that long before the […]

Neuroendocrine Cancer Diarrhea- building the jigsaw: Bile Acid Malabsorption

With Neuroendocrine Cancer patients, the mention of “diarrhea” is a topical subject. There’s the usual claim that it’s caused by carcinoid syndrome and for some that will be true, particularly people who have tumours associated with that syndrome, that is, those who have mostly a midgut primary; and that is, those who mostly have elevated […]

177Lu-DOTA-LM3 – a novel radionuclide therapy proven safe and effective to treat neuroendocrine neoplasms (NEN)

This is all the information available and further details to follow if any is published. Remember, this is not yet an approved treatment, nor is it widely available. Only ever used in experimental/compassionate situations. Not even entered the formal clinical trial system. So even if there was a plan to develop and deploy it (which […]

Small Intestine Neuroendocrine Tumours: “No other cancer really looks like this”

It’s known that Neuroendocrine Cancer is quite different in many ways from other cancers, notwithstanding the misnomer term carcinoid which is thankfully being slowly moved out of terminology. As a few examples: It’s a wide spectrum heterogeneous cancer group with indolent isolated small tumours at one end all the way across to extremely aggressive metastatic […]