November is Carcinoid Cancer Awareness Month

JOIN WITH THE AACR TO FIND BETTER WAYS TO PREVENT AND TREAT CARCINOID CANCER

Carcinoid Cancer Awareness Month

Carcinoid tumors are rare, slow-growing cancers that usually start in the lining of the digestive tract and lungs, but can also occur in other areas, including the testes and ovaries. These tumors are a type of neuroendocrine tumor – growths that begin in the cells of the nervous and hormonal systems.

Carcinoid cancer often does not produce symptoms in the early stages, and is often diagnosed inadvertently during an X-ray for an unrelated reason. 

Some carcinoid tumors produce symptoms that are not specific to this disease, such as facial flushing, diarrhea, abdominal pain, rash, and intestinal bleeding. This type of cancer is mostly diagnosed in people older than 60. Carcinoid cancer is more common in women than men. Researchers have estimated that more than 12,000 people are diagnosed with carcinoid tumors every year in the United States.

Risk factors for carcinoid cancers include having a family history of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) syndrome or neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) syndrome, and having certain conditions that affect the stomach’s ability to make stomach acid, such as atrophic gastritis, pernicious anemia, or Zollinger-Ellison syndrome.

What Is the AACR Doing in The Area of carcinoid cancer research?

The Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation (NETRF) – formerly the Caring for Carcinoid Foundation – has been a partner of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) since 2011. The organization’s mission is to fund research to discover cures and more effective treatments for carcinoid, pancreatic, and related neuroendocrine cancers. The Foundation funds the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation-AACR Grants. 

In 2020, Etay Ziv, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, was awarded a grant to study when and how high-grade pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) arise in the course of the disease and how to identify subclones selected for therapy. 

Previously, Ali Azhdarinia, PhD, University of Texas Health Science Center at House, was awarded a grant to support his work on image-guided drug delivery using positron emission tomography (PET) to improve chemotherapy for neuroendocrine tumors.

for more information

Please see our page on Gastrointestinal Carcinoid Tumors.