Calendar of Events
NorCal CarciNET Community now offers over a dozen meetings and events per month: bi-weekly drop in community gatherings; monthly facilitated groups with speakers; and weekly yoga practice. You can always find our current schedule by clicking on our calendar page: NorCal Calendar Page
Join LACNETS for the 2021 Los Angeles Neuroendocrine Tumor Patient Education Virtual Conference on Saturday, June 19th. This live online event features: 11 NET experts, a live Q&A with the experts, a NETs 101 session for the newly-diagnosed, patient and caregiver stories, and much more!
There was an immense amount of information given to us patients and caregivers yesterday. Well delivered and useful information. One cannot begin to list everything we heard. For that, you should watch the conference stream that is available on YouTube here:
This will be available for a long time, I think. There will be individual videos of the sessions as soon as they can be properly edited.
NETRF has initiated a podcast. If you like/listen to podcasts, it is available here: netrf/podcast and will soon be available at all of the normal podcast sources.
Bearing in mind that I have been to a number of conferences and seen many videos, much was not really new for me. Some things on my mind from the conference:
Genetics
Most of us know that there is a familial connection for some NET patients. And, it seems there must be some genetic connection between tumors in a patient and tumors in another patient. Dr. Fishbein’s presentation clarified those thoughts for me, educated me more on genetics and especially brought home these points about whether to be tested for inherited genetic causes of NETs.
PNETs (up to 15% inherited)
only test if multiple primary tumors in the patient or if another feature of a syndrome is present.
Lung NETs and Small-Intestine-NETs (rarely inherited)
Only if another feature of a syndrome is present
Pheo/Para (35-40% inherited)
Testing recommended for everyone with these NETs
Medulary Thyroid Cancer (25% or more inherited)
Testing recommended for everyone with these NETs
Medical ID
Josh Mailman brought up the desirability of having a medical ID. He said the he wore his all the time. We have discussed this in our support group in the past but it bears repeating. Having readily available Medical Information may be very important in the case of an accident or crisis.
For myself, I do not wear an ID bracelet, but, I do have an “In Case of Emergency” app on my smart phone which is with me most of the time. On my Android phone, I use Medical ID(Free): In Case of Emergency.
It can be set to show whether you are an organ donor, height, weight, medical conditions, allergies and reactions (“Epinephine only in Emergencies”), current medications and notes (here I list emergency contacts family, PCP, Oncologist, Health Insurance Plan and number, and pacemaker model.) This can be set to appear on your home screen even if it is locked, so that emergency people can access the info.
There are many of these apps available for both Android and iPhone.Always download only from Google or Apple stores.
Communication
Josh also led a great discussion on communication between patients and doctors. A very important point to me was how important the caregiver can be in the discussions.
It was a wonderful conference and I may add to these points later. If you went to the conference, don’t hesitate to add your take-aways in the comments below.
Elyse, Gellerman, Anne Ferrell, Lela Selby, Cy Ball
Thanks so much to Elyse Gellerman and Laran Hyder of the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation for providing such an informative and useful conference.
Thanks to the speakers for their wonderful presentations:
Lauren Fishbein MD PhD, Endrocrinology
University of Colorado
John Gerhold MD, Diagnostic Radiology
Diversified Radiology
Mark Lewis MD, Medical Oncology
Intermountain Healthcare
Eric Liu MD, Surgical Oncology
Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers
Josh Mailman MBA, Cancer Patient Advocacy
NorCal CarciNET
Charles Nutting DO FSIR, Interventional Radiology
Minimally Invasive Procedure Specialists
Heloisa Soares MD PhD, Oncology
University of New Mexico
The conference videos will be available on the NETRF YouTube channel after they have been edited.
We had strong attendance and people stayed for the whole 8 hours!