September is Urology Awareness Month : the GU system, as this is known, comprises of the kidney, ureters, bladder and urethra . . .in men it also includes the prostate, testes and penis.
Following on from our support of Orchid’s Male Cancer Awareness week (13-19th Sept) – we now look at Neuroendocrine Cancers of the GU tract – which affect both men and women.
Primary neuroendocrine tumours in the genitourinary tract are rare, comprising approximately 1-2% of all genitourinary malignancies.
Neuroendocrine Cancers of the kidneys are incredibly rare, in fact according to published reports, less than 100 incidences have been written about (in case studies or very small series). They are perhaps more unusual, in that, the kidneys are not known to contain neuroendocrine cells – and it has been suggested that they may originate from either kidney stem cells that undergo neuroendocrine differentiation or they arise from congenital abnormalities in kidney formation.
For early stage disease – surgery is recommended, whilst for those who present with metastatic disease, systemic therapy – depending on whether they are NETs or NECs is the treatment of choice (n.b. most are NETs).
Neuroendocrine Cancers of the bladder are predominantly NECs – of either large or small cell type. Surgery, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy are possible treatment options.
However, for both kidney and bladder, it is vitally important to confirm whether the disease is indeed a primary or if it has developed as a secondary from another site.
Our factsheets for all GU NENs are in development – however we already have information on prostate, testicular and gynaecological primaries. Our range of Neuroendocrine Cancer primary site Factsheets are available from our website here