Endocrine Abstracts

The sodium iodide symporter (NIS) is an intrinsic plasma membrane glycoprotein that mediates the active transport of iodide in the thyroid gland and a number of extrathyroidal tissues, in particular lactating mammary gland. In addition to its key function in thyroid physiology, NIS-mediated iodide accumulation allows diagnostic thyroid scintigraphy as well as therapeutic radioiodine application in benign and malignant thyroid disease. Functional NIS expression in differentiate...

There are four major types of thyroid cancer: well-differentiated papillary (PTC) and follicular (FTC) carcinoma, undifferentiated anaplastic carcinoma (ATC), and neural-crest derived medullary carcinoma (MTC). In the past two decades, some genetic lesions associated with these tumor types have been unveiled, with mutations in RET and BRAF, RAS and PPARγ, RAS, BRAF and PI3K/AKT, and RET, associated to PTC, FTC, ATC and MTC, respectively. PTC and FTC patients are treated b...

Although the role of radioiodine (RaI) in recurrent or metastatic thyroid cancer is beyond dispute, the efficacy of this therapy is hampered by the decreased expression of the sodium iodide symporter (NIS) in DTC during the process of dedifferentiation. At present, there are no effective therapies available for RaI non-avid DTC. Conventional chemotherapy is hardly effective in DTC, and no longer recommended in international guidelines. In DTC, many genetic alterations have bee...