Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Metastatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) constitute a heterogeneous group of uncurable cancers with limited treatment options. Lenvatinib is an oral multiple kinase inhibitor that showed activity in gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors in the phase II Talent Trial at a starting dose of 24 mg per day. Although a confirmatory phase III study was never conducted, the drug is available for use off-label.Methods: We retrospectively revie...

Introduction: Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease is an inherited, autosomal dominant syndrome manifested by a variety of benign and malignant tumors, with an incidence of about 1 in 36 000 individuals and a mean age at presentation of 26 years.We present a family (mother and daughter) case of possible type 2A VHL disease diagnosed with multiple VHL-associated tumors in the absence of an available genetic testing. They both presented in our clinic in 2013 wi...

Animal and clinical models of GHRH excess suggest that GHRH provides an important trophic drive to pituitary somatotrophs. Mice in which GHRH neurons have been ablated using a novel viral ion channel transgene (GHRH-M2 mice) show marked anterior pituitary hypoplasia and GH deficiency although GH cells are present. GHRH-M2 mice are also deficient in prolactin which is surprising as GHRH has little or no direct effect on PRL synthesis or release (Le Tissier, Mol Endo 19). In mic...

Hormones and hormone receptors in mammals, including humans, display bewildering complexity. The evolution of peptide hormone families with multiple members has been difficult to resolve because of their short sequences. Their G-protein-coupled receptor families are challenging because they display variable sequence rates along the proteins, between species, and over time. My laboratory has therefore combined analyses of sequences with investigation of conserved synteny, i.e. ...

The regulatory processes of appetite and metabolism have turned out to be exceedingly complex and involve numerous hormones and neurotransmitters, particularly peptides. Evolutionary studies in our laboratory have shown that many genes encoding peptides and receptors were duplicated in the early stages of vertebrate evolution through chromosome duplications. Thus, many of the components have existed for 400–500 million years, for instance the various members of the famili...

The need for thyroid residue ablation in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), classified with the TNM staging (AJCC, 2002) as pT1, with a maximum diameter comprised between 1 and 2 cm (pT1/1-2) and/or multifocal, is still debated. Aim of this study was to compare the outcome of pT1N0M0 patients submitted or not to postsurgical radioiodine ablation. Consecutive patients followed-up at this Institution from 1996 to 2010 were enrolled. All pT1/1-2N0M0 cases were radioiodine ablated be...

Women with Turner Syndrome (TS) often feel well but require detailed screening for potential sequelae, which may impact on their quality of life, morbidity and mortality. They may also have psychological issues around living with the condition. It is our opinion that women with TS benefit from attending a specialised clinic and consequently an Adult TS Clinic (ATSC) was set up, however the opinion of the women attending such a service is not known. A survey was therefore condu...

A 60 year old lady presented to her GP with symptoms, she described as ‘morning sickness’.She also reported nausea (better after eating), mild epigastric discomfort.Examination revealed a soft non tender abdomen, with no organomegaly.She was referred for urgent upper GI endoscopy and abdominal USS.Initial bloods showed impaired liver function,...

A 60 year old lady presented to her GP with symptoms, she described as ‘morning sickness’.She also reported nausea (better after eating), mild epigastric discomfort.Examination revealed a soft non tender abdomen, with no organomegaly.She was referred for urgent upper GI endoscopy and abdominal USS.Initial bloods showed impaired liver function,...

Bariatric surgery has had to change its name because as a ‘weight loss treatment’ it was far less successful than as a ‘health gain treatment’. The focus now is on metabolic surgery and no longer on just reducing kilograms but rather on improving organ function. The organs that appear to benefit most are those damaged by the combination of type 2 diabetes and excess adipocytes. At the heart of success of surgery is the significant gut adaptation which then ...