Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors like monoclonal antibodies targeting programmed death 1 receptor (PD1) or its ligand (PD-L1) have shown antitumor activity in many malignancies by enhancing immune response against cancer cells resulting in significant long-lasting responses. However, this therapy can induce endocrine immune-related adverse events (EirAEs). Thyroid dysfunction is a common EirAE, while adrenal insufficiency (AI) is very uncommon.Ob...

Introduction: Cushing’s disease (CD) is a severe disease, associated with an increased rate of comorbidities and mortality. Remission rate after surgery of pituitary tumor, is around 78%. Relapse occurs in 13% of patients within 10-years after surgery. According to guidelines, patients with unfeasible or non-curative surgery, require additional treatment, including medical therapies. Metyrapone, inhibits 11ß-hydroxylase enzyme, blocking the final step of cortisol syn...

Background: The 2017 World Health Organization classification of pituitary tumors established that, pituicytoma, granular cell tumor of the sella (GCT) and spindle cell oncocytoma (SCO) are posterior pituitary tumors (PPT). These lesions are non-neuroendocrine and low-grade neoplasms of the sellar region presenting with mass effect symptoms. Their clinical manifestation, hormonal profile and radiological findings are indistinguishable from non-functioning pituitary adenomas (N...

Introduction: Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) is a rare and aggressive form of non-Langerhans cell histiocytosis (n-LCH). Its etiology is unknown, but recently, BRAFV600E (a proto-oncogene) has been found in more than 50% of cases. This may play a part in chronic uncontrolled inflammation, which is an important aspect of disease pathogenesis.Case report: A 42-year-old woman complained of generalized weakness, polyuria, and secondary amenorrhea. Biochemistr...

Objective: The reported incidence of growth disorders in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) recipients ranges from 20 to 80% and it was usually described in patients that were given total body irradiation (TBI) in the conditioning regimen. Because the effect of chemotherapy-only conditioning is less clear, we investigated the frequency of growth failure in our series of children treated with HSCT for different disorders without TBI as part of the conditioning proto...

Objective: Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) has a crucial role in growth and metabolism. A specifically designed autoantibody (aAb) assay against the IGF1 receptor (IGF1R-aAb) is able to detect IGF1R-aAb in serum. As the IGF1R has shown involvement in many functional pathologies (e.g. in the Laron syndrome), we aimed to investigate the role of IGF1R-aAb in a large population-based cohort of middle-aged volunteers and their potential effects on anthropometric, osteological a...

Background: Active acromegaly induces insulin resistance despite a lean phenotype, both of which reverse by curative surgery. The impact of somatostatin analogue treatment on insulin sensitivity is less certain and may be offset by its anti-lipogenic effects.Aim: To study insulin sensitivity, body composition and extopic lipid content in newly diagnosed patients with acromegaly before and ≥6 months after successful surgical or medical treatment.</p...

Introduction: Ectopic ACTH syndrome (EAS) is a rare cause of Cushing’s syndrome. EAS is most frequently caused by bronchial carcinoid tumor or small cell lung cancer. Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare source of EAS, as reported in this case.Case report: A 65-years-old-female with back pain and weight gain referred to our outpatient clinic with determined signs and symptoms of hypercortisolism. She had arterial hypertension, her sister had ...

Background: With the increasing use of cancer immunotherapies in advanced solid organ and hematologic malignancies, endocrinologists are beckoned to manage endocrine complications with unique presentations and natural history in the already challenged oncology patient. We describe four patients illustrating the multifarious endocrine adversities of checkpoint inhibitors.Cases: Patient 1 is a 35-year old male with refractory Hodgkin’s lymphoma, previ...

Hypophysitis is one of the immune-related adverse events of immune checkpoint blockade. This complication is potentially dangerous, mainly because of the insidious development of a life-threatening hypocortisolism. Unnecessary morbidity or mortality in an oncological responder may be the result. The number of patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors increases rapidly, due to the expansion of indications and trials. Moreover, the introduction of combination schedules ...