Endocrine Abstracts

Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a rare disease accounting for about 5% of all thyroid cancers and can occur sporadically (75%) or as part of the familial syndrome multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN 2). The hereditary forms are caused by a mutation in the ‘rearranged during transfection’ (RET) gene.When a proven RET mutation is present carriers will be offered a prophylactic thyroidectomy. The timing of this prophylactic procedure is not...

Background: Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a rare malignancy with a variable and sometimes unpredictable disease course. To predict the course of disease more accurately at diagnosis, we introduce dynamic risk stratification by analyzing factors related to “stage migration” within the first 5 years after diagnosis.Methods: All patients diagnosed at the University Medical Center of Groningen between 1999 and 2015 were retrospectively studied....

Introduction: Presence of thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAbs) may be a marker of future thyroid failure. However, prospective studies in a euthyroid population have not been performed.Aim of the study: To prospectively investigate the relationship between presence and levels of TPOAbs and incident hypothyroidism in euthyroid subjects in the general population.Study population: The database used for this study consisted of a rand...

Background: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a neuroendocrine tumor derived from the parafollicular C-cells of the thyroid gland. Mutations in the gene encoding the Rearranged during Transfection (RET) tyrosine kinase, play a vital role in the development of MTCs. In patients with distant metastases, only targeted therapy can prolong survival. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) block tyrosine kinases such as RET and thereby inhibit tumor proliferation. However, it is diffic...

Objectives: Thyroglobulin (Tg) is an established tumor marker for differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) patients. However, Tg immunoassays can be subject to autoantibody (TgAb) interference resulting in incorrect Tg values. Tg measurement with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) could be promising in patients with TgAbs. In this study, we compared a Tg immunoradiometric assay (Tg-IRMA) and a Tg-LC-MS/MS analytically in the presence of TgAbs. Furthermore,...

Background: The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a combination of unfavourable health factors including abdominal obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension and impaired fasting glucose. Several small-scale studies have reported a relationship between thyroid function and some MetS components or suggested that serum FT3 levels within the normal range were independently associated with insulin resistance. We assessed how thyroid function relates to the prevalence of MetS in a large popul...

Hypophysitis is one of the immune-related adverse events of immune checkpoint blockade. This complication is potentially dangerous, mainly because of the insidious development of a life-threatening hypocortisolism. Unnecessary morbidity or mortality in an oncological responder may be the result. The number of patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors increases rapidly, due to the expansion of indications and trials. Moreover, the introduction of combination schedules ...

Background: Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) survivors have an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality but, the pathophysiological mechanism remains largely unknown. Early treatment for high-risk DTC entails thyroid surgery, radioiodine therapy with thyroid hormone (TH)-withdrawal, and thyroxine suppression therapy (THST). During treatment, patients cycle from severe hypothyroidism to exogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism. TH changes in early DTC treatment might affec...

Introduction: Most thyroid cancer (TC) patients have a good prognosis, but some of them show aggressive behavior and are resistant to treatment. Still no effective biomarkers are available to predict which patients will progress. Epigenetic alterations are a hallmark of cancer, and profiling DNA methylation has allowed a better understanding of the epigenetic landscape of TC and its influence in TC progression. However, bulk DNA methylomes include information not only from tum...

Context: Germline mutations of the gene encoding succinate dehydrogenase subunit B (SDHB) predispose to head and neck paraganglioma (HNPGL), sympathetic PGL, phaeochromocytoma and renal cell carcinoma for which regular surveillance is required. SDHB-associated tumors harbor germline and somatic mutations, consistent with Knudson’s two-hit hypothesis stating that the combination of an inactivating germline mutation as a first hit and somatic loss of funct...