Endocrine Abstracts

Growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH), apart from stimulating GH secretion in the pituitary, exerts many peripheral functions, including stimulation of cell proliferation and survival. In fact, GHRH and GHRH receptors (GHRH-Rs) are expressed in different cancer cell types, where they promote proliferation and survival. Conversely, GHRH antagonists exert antineoplastic activities in several tumors, including lung cancer, one of the leading causes of death by cancer worldwide....

In the gastroentero-pancreatic tract, a spectrum of neuroendocrine tumors (NET) exists, including low grade tumors (carcinoid), intermediate grade malignant carcinoid, and high grade poorly differentiated carcinomas of the small and large cell types. In year 2000, the WHO presented a classification scheme for all NETs, but mostly applied to gastroentero-pancreatic tumors. This term carcinoid was replaced by (neuro)endocrine tumor, malignant carcinoid by well differentiated (ne...

Human malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare but aggressive neoplasm, arising from pleural mesothelial cells, generally due exposure to asbestos. Of note, different growth factors and their receptors are involved in the pathogenesis of MPM and resistance to therapy. Chemotherapy with cisplatin (cis) and antifolates, like pemetrexed (PEM), is the first-line treatment for inoperable MPM. Growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH), besides stimulating GH secretion in the ant...

Objective: In vitro data suggest that somatostatin receptors (SSTR) and mTOR pathways might represent reasonable targets for novel therapies, since are involved in growth of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). However, in vitro analysis of combination treatments, targeting both mTOR and SSTR as compared to mitotane, and detailed tissue typing mTOR/SSTR pathway are poorly explored in ACC.Methods: This study was designed to characterize the t...

Objective: Various features have been identified as predictors of relapse after complete resection of pheochromocytoma, but a comprehensive multivariable model for recurrence risk prediction is lacking. The aim of this study was to develop and internally validate an integrated predictive model for post-surgical recurrence of pheochromocytoma.Methods: The present research retrospectively enrolled 177 patients affected by pheochromocytoma and submitted to ...

Background: There is currently no effective blood biomarker for lung neuroendocrine neoplasia diagnosis and management. We describe the clinical utility of a 51 neuroendocrine-specific gene expression set in blood to diagnose bronchopulmonary neuroendocrine tumors (BPNETs) and define their clinical status.Methods: The discovery set included BPNETs (n=154) and controls (n=90), randomly assigned (1:1) to a test and validation set. Specifi...

Introduction: Natural history of lung neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) and in particular of two histological subtypes, atypical carcinoid (AC) and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC), is poorly known.Aim of the study was to determine disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of sporadic, resectable, non-metastatic lung AC and LNEC.Patients and methods: This retrospective study involved 116 consecutive patients surg...

Background: Typing somatostatin receptor (SSTR) expression in neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) is of relevance to target an octreotide-based diagnostic approach and treatment. The expanding use of immunohistochemistry to detect SSTR is to date not paralleled by an accurate methodological setting and standardized interpretation of the results.Objective: A multicentric study was designed to compare SSTR immunohistochemical expression with in vivo scinti...

Background: The systematic use of confirmatory tests in the diagnosis of primary aldosteronism (PA) increases costs, risks and complexity to the diagnostic work-up. In light of this, some authors proposed aldosterone-to-renin (ARR) cut-offs and/or integrated flow-charts to avoid this step. Patients with resistant hypertension (RH), however, are characterized by a dysregulated renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, even in the absence of PA. Thus, it is unclear whether those str...

Background: Several studies argued that the cardiovascular evaluation of patients with nonfunctioning adrenal incidentaloma is of particular importance, even if a direct association seems difficult to underline.Objective: We aimed to evaluate the possibility of stratifying cardiometabolic risk through metanephrine levels in patients with incidentally discovered nonfunctioning adrenal adenoma.Design: In this retrospective cross-sect...