Not Rare, Just Missed: 19 Landmarks Across Canada Light Up for World NET Cancer Day

Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumour Society calls for earlier diagnosis of neuroendocrine cancer

TORONTO, Nov. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tonight, 19 landmarks in 15 Canadian cities across 8 provinces light up for World NET Cancer Day, including the CN Tower, the Calgary Tower, BC Place, Vancouver’s Sails of Light and St. John’s City Hall. The Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (CNETS) is using the lightings to call for earlier diagnosis of neuroendocrine tumours (NETs), a cancer often missed for years because its symptoms look like everyday conditions. The full list of landmarks is available at https://cnets.ca/news-events/awareness/2026-net-cancer-day/.

NETs can develop almost anywhere in the body. Symptoms such as flushing, diarrhea, abdominal pain and wheezing are often blamed on IBS, rosacea, asthma, menopause or stress. Many patients aren’t diagnosed until the cancer has spread.

“We’re often told NET is too rare to get attention. It isn’t rare. It’s dismissed, underdiagnosed and forgotten,” said Elizabeth Wood, President of CNETS, whose mother has lived with NET since 2014. “A cancer that gets missed for years will always look rare on paper. When landmarks from Vancouver to St. John’s light up, they tell patients and families across the country that they’ve been seen.”

“For years I was told it was rosacea, IBS and stress,” said Marj Walker, a CNETS Board member from Dundas, Ontario, diagnosed in 2019. “By the time the cancer was found, it had spread. With a rare cancer, you have to educate and advocate for yourself at a time when you have no energy left. That’s why patients need CNETS.”

Think zebras: a call to action

Medical students are taught, “When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.” For NET patients, that advice too often means years of the wrong diagnosis, which is why the zebra has become the symbol of the NET community worldwide.

CNETS is calling on health-care providers to keep NETs in mind when common symptoms don’t respond to common treatments, and on patients to speak up, ask whether it could be NET, and keep asking until they get answers.

“If you know something is wrong, keep going until someone listens,” said Wood. “And to doctors: when the usual explanation isn’t working, think zebra.”

About the Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumour Society

Founded in 2007, the Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (CNETS) is a registered charity supporting Canadians affected by neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) through awareness, patient and caregiver support, education, advocacy and research funding. Learn more at cnets.ca.

Charitable registration number: 85623 3986 RR0001

Media contact:
Elizabeth Wood, President, Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumour Society
289-683-4253 | elizabeth.wood@cnets.ca