News

With the end of 2018 just weeks away, life has moved into high-gear with holidays fast approaching and the many tasks that come with making the holidays special for family and friends. Along with holiday festivities, many of us are considering our year-end charitable gifts. Here at NETRF, our year-end is typically the busiest time of year for receiving donations and we are fortunate that so many include us when making their year-end gifts. We are preparing for a fun #GivingTuesday on November 27 … read more

If you’ve ever been tested for eyeglasses, you know how one lens can create grainy, foggy images and the next crisp, clear letters. That’s the kind of difference you can see between the Gallium-68 PET/CT scan and prior technology. But are these newer imaging techniques better? And who stands to benefit most from them? ... read more

Many patients and families facing a neuroendocrine tumor (NET) diagnosis wonder if they inherited the disease from their parents or if they can pass it down to their children. Most cases of NETs are not associated with hereditary risk factors. Researchers estimate that inherited factors may be associated in 17% of PNETs1 and 25% of pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas2. Other rates vary by primary site and subtypes of tumors. Knowing you have an inherited genetic risk factor won’t always have an … read more

Despite a gusty, northerly breeze and temperatures in the high 30s, 177 walkers, 18 volunteers, and many family dogs turned out for the first-ever DC Walk for Carcinoid Cancer on Saturday, November 10th, World Net Cancer Awareness Day in Arlington, VA. Earlier this year, Sanjiv Jain, CEO, eGlobalTech partnered with NETRF to organize a 2-mile fundraising walk to honor his late wife, Sonya Jain, and to promote awareness about neuroendocrine cancers. Sonya Jain, founder, and former CEO, eGlobalTech … read more

What is the difference between a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor and a pancreatic tumor? A few high profile celebrities, Aretha Franklin and Steve Jobs, have died from pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Following their deaths, their cancer was often called “pancreatic cancer” because it was cancer and it occurred in the pancreas. Why is this wrong? Though they occur in the same organ, these are two different types of cancers. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma and neuroendocrine cancers have different: Ca … read more

Elyse Gellerman, NETRF Chief Executive Officer We celebrate the accomplishments of Jim Allison, Ph.D., winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Dr. Allison discovered the technique of using the body’s T-cells to fight cancer, leading to breakthrough immunotherapy. This discovery did not happen overnight—it is the product of years of painstaking work in the laboratory. And like many breakthroughs, the work probably began with small steps that did not communicate their full significanc … read more

Early Research on Targeting Single Cancer Cells to Prevent Metastasis Despite the effectiveness of Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) to prolong survival of those with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), many patients will see their cancer spread a few years later. To help discover technology capable of more accurately killing individual neuroendocrine cancer cells, NETRF granted a 2018 Petersen Investigator award to Roger Schibli, PhD, Paul Scherrer Institut, Zurich Switzerland. His st … read more