Endocrine Abstracts

Neonatal Cushing syndrome (CS) is a rather rare disease. The majority of these few cases are of ACTH dependent origin or caused by a unilateral adrenal tumour (carcinoma or adenoma), however ACTH independent bilateral hyperplasias stand for only a few percent of all cases. The management of neonatal CS depends on the underlying cause – if found in time - of the disease. In the past the survival rate of children with CS was low, new and renewed medical attempts have improv...

Introduction: In vitro monolayer cell cultures are not able to faithfully model the biological features of the three dimensional (3D) structure of solid tumours. There are limited information about the applicability of 3D cell culturing methods for modeling of tumours of endocrine organs.Aim: The aim of our work was the establishment and characterization of three-dimensional in vitro models of various endocrine tumour cells in order to ...

Among well-known circulating melanoma markers 5-S-cysteinyldopa (5-SCD), a precursor of pheomelanin biosynthesis and S-100 beta (S-100B) are extensively investigated. Our earlier observations confirmed that serum concentration of 5-SCD and S-100B correlates well with the stages and progression of the disease. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional inflammatory cytokine implicated in advanced stage of various diseases and tumour recurrence. Malignant melanoma cells are known...

Background: The altered DNA methylation of certain genes in Pituitary Neuroendocrine Tumors (PitNETs) are well known. However little information is available regarding global methylation changes and the process of demethylation in these tumors. In addition, influencing global methylation-demethylation could be a potential new therapeutic option especially in clinically non-functional PitNETs.Material and Methods: Overall, 44 fresh frozen pituitary adenom...

Human breast cancer tissue is able to concentrate estrogens. 17-beta-estradiol (E2) and estrone (E1) are produced locally through several mechanisms, e.g. from conjugated and unconjugated steroid hormones uptaken from the circulation. This study was aimed to investigate the correlation between endogenous serum sex steroid concentrations and tumour receptor status in postmenopausal breast cancer patients undergoing surgical intervention. The study involved 740 postmenopausal pa...

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the diagnostic performance of a high-sensitive thyroglobulin (Tg) immunoradiometric assay (BRAHMS Tg-S) in the follow-up of papillary and follicular thyroid cancer patients treated with total/nearly total thyreoidectomy and radioiodine ablation therapy. During TSH suppression serum Tg concentration was measured 6 weeks prior to the radioiodine ablation (onT4-Tg before ablation) as well as 3 months following treatment (onT4–Tg a...