A young woman who was repeatedly dismissed by doctors, despite having chronic stomachaches and losing 10 kilos in just two months, was diagnosed with a deadly gastric wall cancer. For university student Bruna Gettert, it was difficult to endure the pain—along with nausea and vomiting. And so, she went to the hospital to find treatment.

However, she was diagnosed initially with anxiety and prescribed antidepressants by the doctors. And so, her condition deteriorated, and her symptoms were consistently overlooked. In the end, it took more than two years and two months for the doctors to give a proper diagnosis, but by then, her cancer had spread. Bruna was told she had a 10-centimetre mass in her tummy and metastases in her liver, which could finally explain her persistent stomach pain. A detailed investigation, which included biopsies, detected a gastrointestinal stromal tumour, or GIST.

“I have a well-differentiated grade 2 neuroendocrine tumour, and this main tumour is located in the region of the pancreas, retroperitoneum, and gastric curvature,” she said on social media. “It's about 7 centimeters at the moment. I discovered it when it was 10 centimeters and managed to partially reduce it, but I also have metastases in my liver, so yes, it's in the digestive system in a way,” Bruna added.

Bruna said apart from stomachache, she also suffered from heartburn, nausea, indigestion, diarrhoea, and intense abdominal pain. She lost 10 kilograms in just two months – dropping from 45 to 35 kilos.

"People say I handle everything lightly, but I just allow myself to feel. What hurts is that my complaints were invalidated because I was too young," Bruna adds.

Neuroendocrine tumours, or NETs, are a group of uncommon tumours that start in your neuroendocrine cells – which combine the traits of nerve cells and hormone-producing endocrine cells. According to experts, most neuroendocrine tumours are malignant.

There are many types of neuroendocrine tumours with symptoms that are easy to mistake for other, less serious conditions. The characteristics of NETs, which include how aggressive they are, the symptoms they cause, and what treatments work best – all of which vary based on the tumour. According to experts, NETs affect about 6 in 100,000 people globally. Even though neuroendocrine cancer is rare, more people are being diagnosed.

A few risk factors for these tumours include:

• Genetic changes
• Multiple endocrine neoplasia
• Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome
• Tuberous sclerosis complex
• Cowden syndrome

Signs and symptoms of neuroendocrine tumours

Doctors say mostly neuroendocrine tumours do not cause symptoms until they impact an organ. When this happens, symptoms vary based on location. A few of these include: