NCUK Virtual Patient Handbook

In small bowel neuroendocrine cancer - it may not be the primary tumour itself that causes pain / obstruction - but either an inflammatory, reactive response (called desmoplasia) / spread of tumour cells to nearby lymph nodes (which then clump together) and may be identified on scans as a mesenteric mass.

If you experience symptoms of bowel obstruction you should be reviewed, as soon as possible, by a medical team - even if by the time you are seen, symptoms have eased off. If your nearest A&E is not your specialist centre - notify your specialist team you are going to A&E and which one (or ask attending staff in the department to do so). A bowel obstruction requires urgent medical attention to not only alleviate the cause, but also to prevent perforation (where part of the bowel wall may be break down, releasing bowel contents into the abdomen) - and to protect the rest of the bowel from damage due to impaired blood supply, nerve damage / lymphatic system issues.

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