Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Bronchial carcinoids (BC) are still orphan of medical therapy. We previously demonstrated that the typical BC human cell line NCI-H727 is sensitive to Everolimus, in terms of cell viability reduction, while the atypical human BC cell line NCI-H720 is not. However, the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon have not been fully clarified.Aim: The aim of our study is to investigate the mechanisms of resistance to mTOR inhibitors in BC cells.<...

Bronchial carcinoids (BC) are rare tumors originating from endocrine cells dispersed in the respiratory epithelium. Currently, the main BC treatment is surgery, that can be curative in most of the cases, but is not feasible for large, infiltrating and metastatic disease. In these settings, medical therapy is often tried, being mainly represented by chemotherapy and radiation in the attempt to reduce tumor mass, while somatostatin analogues are employed for symptomatic control....

Introduction: It is known that growth hormone (GH) may influence neoplastic development of endometrial epithelium. GH is produced by normal and neoplastic endometrial cells and elevated levels have been observed in endometrial epithelium of patients with endometriosis and endometrial adenocarcinoma (EA). Moreover, endometrium cancer is one of the most occurring tumors in acromegalic patients. Furthermore, autocrine GH increases the oncogenicity of EA cells and is considered fu...

Acromegaly results from excess growth hormone (GH) secretion, due to a pituitary adenoma. Surgery is the first option recommended for treatment of GH secreting pituitary adenomas; medical therapy, mostly represented by somatostatin analogues (SSA), is most often used if surgery is not successful. Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) physiologically reduces GH levels through an endocrine negative feedback loop. IGF-1 exerts its effects also through PI3K/Akt/mTO...

Background: Bronchial carcinoids (BC) are rare tumors originating from endocrine cells dispersed in the respiratory epithelium. The main BC treatment is surgery, which is not feasible for large, infiltrating and metastatic disease. In these settings, medical therapy is often tried. Therefore it is important to identify new therapeutic targets and new molecules capable of providing adequate medical treatment for patients with BC. Sunitinib, is an oral, small-molecule, multi-tar...

Introduction: CDKN1B gene, which encodes a cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) inhibitor, regulates the progression throughout G1 to S cell cycle progression. CDKN1B loss-of-function germinal mutations cause the multiple endocrine neoplasia type 4 syndrome (MEN4).Objective: The aim of the study is the functional characterization of a new 4 bp deletion in CDKN1B 5′-UTR region, identified in an acromegalic patient.Materials and metho...

Background: Bronchial carcinoids (BC) are rare neoplasm, still orphan of medical therapy, which arise from neuroendocrine cells. It has been previously demonstrated that the atypical BC human cell line NCI-H720 is sensitive to everolimus (E), an m-TOR inhibitor, in terms of cell viability reduction, with a G0 cell-cycle arrest and a Cyclin D1 protein reduction. On the contrary, the typical human BC cell line NCI-H727 is not sensitive to E, despite the Cyclin D1 reduction. The ...

Background: Gigantism and acromegaly are the main consequences of GH excess, mainly due to a pituitary adenoma. Surgery is the first therapeutic option, but also medical therapy is employed, being mostly represented by somatostatin analogues (SSA), that reduce both tumour mass and GH hypersecretion. However about 10% of patients is resistant to SSA.PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, activated by growth-factors such as IGF1, is important in regulating many cellular p...

Introduction: Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are heterogeneous neoplasms arising from neuroendocrine cells spread in the respiratory and gastro-entero-pancreatic epithelium. The role of transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGFβ1) in NET biology is largely unknown. TGFβ1 signalling pathway is tumour suppressive in most non-transformed epithelial cell lines. In contrast, many human carcinomas are refractory to the growth–inhibitory effects of TGFβ1.<p class=...

Follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) is the second most common thyroid malignant epithelial tumor. It is clinically asymptomatic, usually represented by a single nodule, less often multiple, with origin from thyroid follicular epithelial cells. Despite its well-differentiated characteristics, FTC may develop distant metastases through hematogenous dissemination. The molecular alterations involved in the pathogenesis of follicular neoplasia are not completely known. Recent studie...