Endocrine Abstracts

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 represented mostly 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...

Adrenocortical cancer (ACC) is a rare and aggressive malignancy. Currently the main therapeutic option is surgery, but due to difficult and delayed diagnosis and to the onset of metastases, medical therapy is often tried. ACC treatment is mainly represented by Mitotane alone or in association with chemotherapy, with variable results. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate ACC proliferation could be useful to identify new therapeutic options. Aim of our study is t...

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....

IGF1 represents an important growth factor in pituitary physiology and pathology, also mediating the negative feed-back mechanisms on somatotroph axis. It has been previously demonstrated that IGF1 promotes cell viability in primary cultures of human non functioning pituitary adenomas, by a mechanisms involving, at least in part, mTOR signaling, which is involved in many pathways controlling proliferation. We aimed at investigating whether mTOR may mediate IGF1 effects also in...

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...

Adrenocortical cancer (ACC) is still orphan of medical treatment. Our preliminary data show that EGF induces ACC cell lines proliferation (+20 and +10% vs control in SW13 and NCI-H295 cell lines respectively). EGF receptor (EGFR) expression is higher and ubiquitous in SW13 cells, while it is weaker in NCI-H295 cells, where it is present only on the membrane. Aim of our study is to analyze EGFR downstream signalling in ACC cell lines.EGF induces VEGF synt...

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...

Background: Bronchial carcinoids (BCs) are rare neuroendocrine tumors that are still orphan of medical treatment. Human BC primary cultures may display resistance to everolimus, an inhibitor of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), in terms of cell viability reduction.Aim: To assess whether the novel dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor, NVP-BEZ235, may be effective in everolimus-resistant human BC tissues and cell lines. In addition, we search for possible mark...