Endocrine Abstracts

Bronchopulmonary endocrine tumors represent 25–30% of lung neoplasms. Surgery provides good survival for differentiated tumors (typical and atypical carcinoids), but is not useful for aggressive poorly differentiated forms. Somatostatin (SRIF) analogs can be used as medical therapy, prolonging patient survival. However, the compounds employed so far did not display antiproliferative effects. Recently, a new stable SRIF analog, pasireotide (SOM230), which activates SSTR1, ...

Dopamine (DA) therapy of non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFA) can result in tumor stabilization and shrinkage. However, this effect is not always apparent and the mechanism of action is still unknown. Previous evidence showed that DA inhibits pituitary Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor expression (VEGF), that, in turn, is related to pituitary tumor growth. Our study aimed at clarifying whether VEGF secretion modulation might mediate the effects of DA agonists and chimeric...