Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Available literature on series of patients affected by ectopic Cushing’s syndrome (ECS) deriving from neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) is relatively scarce. This is the first Italian multicentre study regarding clinicopathologic features, modalities of treatment, and survival of patients with NETs and ECS.Patients and methods: Retrospective analysis of data from patients with ECS from NETs collected in 14 centres between 1986 and 2014, ob...

Purpose: We aim at prospectively comparing the detection rate of glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP1R) PET/CT vs GLP1R SPECT/CT vs standardised contrast enhanced 3T MRI in patients with endogenous hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia.Methods: 14 patients with neuroglycopenic symptoms due to endogenous hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia were already enrolled (mean age 56 years, ten females and four males). A standardized contrast enhanced 3T MRI was performed....

Surgery is the only effective therapy for insulinoma patients, therefore there is a necessity to develop diagnostic strategies in cases of unknown tumour location, possibly through the use of new biomarkers. 99mTc labelled glucagon-like peptide 1 analogue (99mTc-GLP1) scintigraphy has been developed in our centre as an imaging technique of insulinoma. Labelled GLP1 analogue might also be applied in diagnosis of various forms of nesidioblastosis allowing t...

Surgery is not feasible for infiltrating and metastatic bronchopulmonary NET (BP-NET). In those cases, medical therapy is tried with controversial results. Thus, it is important to identify new therapeutic targets to provide adequate medical treatment for patients with BP-NET. Sunitinib, is a multi-targeted receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), mainly described to inhibit VEGFR.The aim of our study is to verify whether insulin receptor (IR), IGF1R, a...

Somatostatin receptor type 2 (SST2) is the main pharmacological target of long-acting somatostatin analogues (SSA) widely used in patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (P-NETs). A subset of patients is resistant to SSA, although the molecular mechanisms responsible for resistance are poorly understood. Several studies identified cytoskeleton protein interactions as determinant in receptor anchoring, expression and signalling. Since SST2 was recently demonstrated to a...

Background: Neuroendocrine tumor (NET) symptoms are often similar to common conditions or may not arise until metastasis occurs, delaying diagnosis and impacting survival. We present data on time to diagnosis from the European (EU) NET patient perspective.Methods: In 2014, 1928 NET patients from >12 countries (Europe (n=763): Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Norway, UK, and other EU countries (not specified); Americas; Asia; Oceania) part...

Gastric carcinoids secondary to autoimmune atrophic gastritis (GC type 1) are usually well differentiated neoplasia, with an indolent course and an excellent overall prognosis. However, a subset of these tumors (<5%) may develop advanced disease, with lymph node and/or hepatic metastasis. The pathogenesis of these carcinoids is related to chronic trophic stimuli to enterochromaffin-like (ECL) cells due to chronic hypergastrinemia. Treatments directed to remove the source o...

Background: Insulinomas are the most common functional neuroendocrine tumours of the pancreas. Hypoglycaemic manifestations are highly variable and largely independent on tumour size and severity of insulin hypersecretion.Objectives: In this study we investigated the clinical, biological and tumoural characteristics of a large series of patients with insulinoma and we evaluated the sensitivity of peripheral tissues to insulin before and after surgery.</p...

Introduction: Angiopoietins (ANG) -1 and 2, their receptor TIE2, and the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) are involved in the process of angiogenesis. However, their role in the pathogenesis and development of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs) is not completely understood. In a previous study of 42 patients with GEP-NET, we observed an elevation of these serum markers, especially in those with metastatic disease. The objective of this study was ...