21Apr 2016 by Ronny Allan 12 Comments
Neuroendocrine Cancer – unexpected detours

Neuroendocrine Cancer – unexpected detours

Awareness, Inspiration
I've mentioned 'luck' a few times in the past month following some more 'cancerversary' milestones - these tend to make me reflect on my experience.  Even though I was metastatic at diagnosis, I think of myself as lucky on the basis that my tumours were found by 'chance', or to be more accurate, found following an innocuous set of circumstances.  Click here to hear me talk about my diagnosis.As we know, Neuroendocrine Cancer can sometimes be very difficult to discover and diagnose. However, sometimes with a bit of luck or a chance event, it can be intercepted and can then often lead to a much better outlook for the person concerned.  But sometimes there is also a cost, and I don't just mean financial (although that is also a very real problem).  Despite me…
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15Apr 2016 by Ronny Allan 36 Comments
Neuroendocrine Cancer – it takes guts

Neuroendocrine Cancer – it takes guts

Survivorship
The majority of Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETs) are slow growing (well differentiated).  However, many tumours can be silent (non-functioning) for some years before they start to 'function' and inform you of their presence.  Even then, it may take some time to work out the real cause as the symptoms can mimic regular ailments.  Moreover, in most cases, the appearance of a functional tumour often indicates the disease has metastasised and could now be incurable. Some tumours will grow and metastasise without syndromes, i.e. they are non-functional. These may become functional at some point in the future. However, with most slow-growing NETs, this does not mean terminal as there are various treatment options even at Stage IV.  In fact, NETs are one example where surgery at the metastatic stage can often provide prognostic advantages…
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12Apr 2016 by Ronny Allan 12 Comments
Neuroendocrine Cancer – my liver surgery

Neuroendocrine Cancer – my liver surgery

Treatment
Laparoscopic Surgery ("Keyhole") 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 place Nov 2010 - I wrote about this as Part 1 and Part 2 stories. As we are talking about my liver, it's worth noting that a bland Liver…
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04Apr 2016 by Ronny Allan 3 Comments
Somatostatin Analogues and delivery methods in the pipeline

Somatostatin Analogues and delivery methods in the pipeline

Awareness, Clinical Trials and Research, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer
This is my live blog post covering new developments in the area of new Somatostatin Analogues and new delivery systems. AbstractAs most of you will be aware, there are currently two main types of Somatostatin Analogues (SSA) in use for the treatment of mainstream Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETs) - Octreotide and Lanreotide.  You can click on the links for information on both of these well-known NET treatments.  This post will focus on the not so well known and anything in the pipeline including different delivery systems.Those who have read the Octreotide/ Lanreotide patient leaflets will know those SSAs are also used in the treatment of a condition known as Acromegaly. You can see why the drug is used for both as they control the release of excess secretions of various substances, a…
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