Endocrine Abstracts

Breast cancer (BCa) patients who present at clinic with elevated circulating LDL-cholesterol have poor prognosis, whilst pharmacological and lifestyle interventions that lower circulating cholesterol (statins, exercise, low saturated fat intake etc.) are associated with better treatment efficacy. The molecular mechanisms that link cholesterol with chemotherapy resistance (CR) remain unexplored. Hydroxycholesterols (OHCs) activate the transcription factor LXR, and are formed in...

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors have demonstrated significant advances in the treatment of several cancers including metastatic melanoma. However, they are frequently associated with immune-related adverse events which often require treatment with prolonged courses of glucocorticoids. Long-term glucocorticoid use is associated with several side effects including hyperglycaemia.Aims: 1) To determine the prevalence of glucocorticoid use in patien...

Introduction: Cure rate of childhood cancer is a medical success story. However >50% of patients have long term consequences of their cancer treatment. We reviewed data on very long term childhood leukaemia follow-up patients at our institution.Methods: We reviewed electronic patient records for 39 patients (23 female, 16 male; 38-ALL, 1-AML). Multiple chemotherapy regimes were used-low use of anthracyclines/alkylating agents apart from BMT group who...

Background: Chromogranin A is an acidic 48 kDa glycoprotein originating from the chromaffin granules of most neuroendocrine cell types. In health chromogranin A is released as a pro-hormone together with other peptide hormones in response to stimulation. In disease larger quantities of Chromogranin A are produced by neuroendocrine derived tumours thus allowing its use as a tumour marker. Due to the different clinical scenarios for measuring Chromogranin A requesting practices ...

Aim: Baseline clinical and biochemical endocrine assessment at the start of immune checkpoint treatment and each treatment cycle is important given the treatable nature of it. Also given the improvements in survival of these patients necessitate further longterm screening. Our study was to look at various aspects of this screening with a view to improve our knowledge and also patient care.Methods: Using an excel database, a retrospective data collection ...

Oestrogens impact colorectal cancer (CRC) development and proliferation. Biologically active oestrogens, oestrone (E1) and oestradiol (E2), are metabolised through hydrolysis of their sulfated forms (oestrone sulfate (E1S) and oestradiol sulfate) by steroid sulfatase (STS). We have shown that increased STS activity drives CRC proliferation via oestrogen hydrolysis. We have also identified that CRC expresses the necessary organic anion transport...

Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs), occurring at multiple sites including the pancreas, lung and pituitary, are increasing in incidence and usually present at an advanced metastatic stage, and current medical treatments have limited efficacy. Epigenetic modifiers are promising new drugs, as mutations in the multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) gene, encoding the histone methyltransferase MLL1 interacting protein, menin, are known to cause both familial and sporadic N...

Breast cancer is the most frequent carcinoma in women and its prevalence could be reduced by early detection which can improve the chances of successful treatment and recovery. Post transcriptional genetic modifiers known as microRNAs (miRNAs) are widely believed to play an essential role in many malignancies, acting as either tumor suppressors or oncogenes. Many recent studies on breast cancer have analyzed various miRNAs that may influence breast cancer progression and devel...

PBF is a multifunctional proto-oncogene overexpressed in thyroid and other endocrine cancers. Previously we identified a functional interaction between PBF and the tumour suppressor p53 in well-differentiated thyroid cancer (WDTC). Here, we delineate the oncogenic mechanisms of PBF, along with its binding partner PTTG, in head and neck cancer (HNSCC), in which TP53 mutations (mutTP53) are common (>50%). HNSCC tissue revealed significant upregulation of PBF and PTTG mRNA (&...

Women worldwide are using progestins in combination with an estrogen to relieve menopausal symptoms. Although the progestin component of menopausal hormone therapies is effective in terms of preventing estrogen-induced endometrial cancer, it has been associated with an increased risk of developing invasive breast cancer. Notably, most studies investigating an association between progestins and breast cancer, have examined older progestins such as medroxyprogesterone acetate, n...

Breast cancer is the most common oncology-related cause of death in women worldwide. The use of progestins in combined hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been implicated in increasing the risk of developing breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Since various progestins are available for clinical use, all differentiated by structure, it is possible that not all progestins would lead to increased breast cancer risk. Progestins are synthetic ligands of the progesterone recept...

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynaeological malignancy in the developed world: lifetime exposure to oestrogen is a key risk factor. Oestrogen action is mediated by ligand activated receptors encoded by the ESR1 (ERα) and ESR2 (ERß) genes: ERα plays a key role in regulating endometrial cell proliferation. ERß5, is a truncated variant isoform of ERß formed by alternative splicing of ESR2 that contains a DNA binding doma...

Elongation factor, RNA polymerase II, 2 (ELL2) is an RNA Pol II elongation factor with functional properties similar to ELL that can interact with the prostate tumor suppressor ELL-associated factor 2 (EAF2). In murine models, deletion of Ell2 induced prostate intraepithelial neoplasia similar to that induced by deletion of Eaf2. Since ELL2 and EAF2 can functionally interact and appear to have similar function in regulating prostate homeostasis, we investigated the impact of c...