Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Survival rates in childhood cancer survivors (CCS) have enormously increased in the last 40 years. However, this improvement has been achieved at the expense of serious late effects, including the potential for severe gonadal damage. Here we report the effects of anticancer therapies on gonadal function in male long-term survivors of childhood cancer.Methods: We estimated, at the last follow up available, the prevalence of primary hypogonad...

Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin (SHBG), the specific plasma carrier for sex steroids, interacts with cell membranes. In breast cancer cells, SHBG-cell interaction is closely related to estrogen-sensitivity and it is followed by a well-defined cascade of events. Soon after SHBG binding to cell membranes, cAMP accumulates in the breast cancer cells, activates PKA that in turn suppresses estradiol-induced ERK activation. ERK inhibition abolishes the anti-apoptotic effects of estradi...

Introduction: The relation between GH treatment and cancer is still matter of debate. Childhood cancer survivors (CCS) have a high risk to develop second benign and malignant neoplasms (SNs), mainly as a consequence of radiation therapy. Thus, in patients with GH deficiency it is difficult to discriminate the oncological risk due to GH treatment from that caused by anticancer therapy and by individual susceptibility.Methods: We studied the prevalence of ...