Breast cancer has pink ribbons…. neuroendocrine cancer has zebras. Really? Why??? Well – as the story goes, when people hear hoof beats they think horses. But sometimes you need to think out of the box and think zebras. They have hoofbeats too! But they are definitely more rare. And that’s what neuroendocrine cancer is, just 2% of all cancers diagnosed at this time.
Turns out I have the rarest of the rare. My pancreatic tumor is secreting “Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide”. It’s called a VIPoma. Leave it up to me to get the VIP of cancers! My Vip is a grade 1, well differentiated tumor, which is functional. That means that my VIP grows slowly, its edges are defined, and is functional in that it is secreting hormones. And, as it turns out, it also secretes seratonin.
In January 2018 I had never heard of this. Now it is almost March and I know more than I ever wanted to know.
