Endocrine Abstracts

Cancer patients now live nearly six times longer after their cancer diagnosis than was the case 40 years ago with the median survival time increasing from one year to six years (Macmillan Cancer Support Nov 2011). Indeed in 2009 it was estimated that around 2 million people were alive in the UK with a cancer diagnosis, rising by 3% a year (Maddams et al. 2009). Whilst most cancer survivors report excellent or good health, recent published evidence indicate that cancer s...

Improvements in cancer therapy have led to increasing numbers of patients surviving complex conditions. A multidisciplinary approach using new treatment modalities allow more aggressive therapy and a greater risk in the long-term to pituitary function. Damage to the hypothalamic pituitary axis has traditionally resulted from the underlying lesion, surgical intervention and radiotherapy. Traditional chemotherapeutic agents have not been implicated. The effect radiation has upon...

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Endocrine late effects following cancer therapy are increasingly recognized. Due to the radio-sensitivity of the thyroid gland both long-term effects on thyroid function and growth have been described. This includes problems of thyroid growth and function. Particularly the development of secondary neoplasms of the thyroid is greatly increased some 10 to 30 years following irradiation. This affects predominantly children before and during puberty. The longitudinal use of thyroi...