Endocrine Abstracts

The decision to undertake a PhD launches you on a path of discovery, but not necessarily scientific discovery!You discover a lot about yourself. Can you survive the failed experiments, the confusion about your goals and the uncertainty about a future career?You discover a lot about working in research groups. Sometimes there is stress with your supervisor, sometimes with other members of the team.The problem ...

We are all aware of the current anxieties over the future of Academic Medicine and Modernising Medical Careers. 10 years ago the BMA cohort of 1995 Medical graduates: Medical Academic Career Intentions was performed. 545 doctors graduating in 1995 were followed up for 10 years. The key findings included: those doctors working in research were doing so to improve future career prospects or as a means to secure a National Training Number (NTN). However being in the transition pe...

We all work incredibly hard to produce a thesis that will allow us to sail through our vivas and get that piece of paper, which says we have a doctorate. The next step is to grab hold of an exciting post-doc position, where we can press the “start” button on a rather traditional career path to independence. During the course of two post-docs, the golden numbers of research articles will be written, submitted, peer-reviewed and published, allowing for a fellowship app...

Background: Somatostatin receptor (SSTR) PET imaging is utilized with increasing frequency in the clinical management of neuroendocrine tumors. Incidental PET-avid CNS lesions are commonly noted and presumed to be meningiomas. However, SSTR PET lacks specificity for meningioma identification. This study aims to clarify the role of SSTR-based imaging for classification of incidental CNS lesionsMethods: Patients who had undergone both Ga-68-DOTATATE PET an...

In all probability, a thesis is the longest single document that anyone is likely to write as a scientist. It requires much planning to ensure that the thesis gets written and submitted on time. To begin with, plan the overall outline of the thesis. With some variation, most theses begin with a comprehensive introduction/literature review. A chapter describing the materials and methods invariably follows. The subsequent chapters contain the material you have sweated over i.e. ...

The MEN1 gene is located on chromosome 11q13; it spans 9 kb, has ten exons, and encodes a 610 amino acid protein named menin (isoform-2, NCBI Reference Sequence: NP_570711.1). Germline heterozygous inactivating mutations in this gene are observed in 70% of patients with the multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) syndrome who develop multiple tumours in various endocrine (parathyroid, pancreas, and pituitary) and non-endocrine tissues with loss of the remaining nor...

Background: Targeted therapies for somatostatin receptor-positive NETs have seen significant developments in recent years. Approved and investigational somatostatin analogs for GEP-NETs are changing the treatment landscape for these cancers allowing for better management of difficult-to-treat heterogeneous tumors. To improve competence in applying these advances and to consider patient perspectives in treatment selection, an educational initiative was designed in collaboration...

Background: More than 12,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with a NET each year and approximately 175,000 people are living with this diagnosis. Little progress has been made in the therapy of NETs over the last two decades, and identification of new vulnerabilities remains a priority.Methods: We used two libraries of compounds selected for potential repurposing and identified agents with the highest cytotoxic activity in neuroendocrine model...

A 29 year old gentleman was referred for investigation of subfertility and hypogonadism. He gave a history of normal erections and libido but had never shaved in his life. Though he denied anosmia, his maternal uncle had a poor sense of smell and his great uncle had needed to adopt children. He was markedly undermasculinised with micropenis and an empty scrotal sac. Neurological assessment showed subtle features of bimanual synkinesis (mirror movements), suggesting X-linked Ka...

Background: Adreno cortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare malignancy associated with aggressive biological behavior and poor outcome. The reported incidence in literature is about approximately two cases per million population’s.These tumors might be functional or non-functional depending on their ability to secrete various adrenocortical hormones. ACC occurring in children and adults show distinct characteristics and there is not much literature regarding the differences. Si...