Endocrine Abstracts

Dopamine agonists have been used as first or adjunctive therapy for acromegaly for many years, but relatively few studies have assessed the efficacy of a newer agonist, cabergoline (CAB) alone or in combination with somatostatin analogues (SSA). The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of combined treatment with SSA plus CAB in patients with acromegaly and resistance to SSA, defined as lack of normalization of IGF-I levels after long-term (>1 year) and hig...

HCC is a difficult-to-treat- cancer with poor prognosis. Despite EVOLVE-1 trial demonstrated that EVE did not improve overall survival in molecularly and clinically unselected patients with advanced sorafenib resistant HCC, in selected patients, the established antitumor effect of EVE could make this drug a potential adjuvant therapy. Unfortunately, the acquired EVE resistance due to the tumour adaptation to chronic drug use is a current challenge. VitD has been deemed as pote...

The mTOR and IGF/insulin pathways are frequently dysregulated in HCC. Antitumoral activity of mTOR inhibitors (mTORi) has been demonstrated in experimental models but in early clinical studies mTORi alone have shown modest antitumoral activity. IGF/insulin-dependent Akt activation, via IGF1R and IR, has been suggested as potential mechanism for mTORi resistance. This study aimed at evaluating the expression of mTOR and IGF/insulin pathway components and the effects of mTORi al...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate cardiac valve insufficiency prevalence after 12-month combined treatment with somatostatin analogues (SA) and CAB in acromegalic patients partially responsive to high-dose and long-term SA monotherapy. Twenty-four patients entered the study. A standard echocardiography was performed in all patients at diagnosis, after high-dose and long-term SA therapy and 12 months after CAB addition to SA to evaluate ejection fraction (EF) and mit...

The pseudo-Cushing states (PCS) include several clinical conditions such as obesity, polycystic ovary syndrome, depression and alcoholism, characterized by physical features and abnormalities of hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis similar to Cushing’s syndrome (CS). The differential diagnosis between CS and PCS is often complicated and requires several hormonal tests. The aim of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the cortisol response to the or...

Cabergoline has been recently demonstrated to normalize cortisol secretion in more than one third of patients with Cushing’s disease (CD). The aim of this study was to evaluate short-term (3-months) and long-term (12-24 months) effects of cabergoline treatment on the main systemic complications of CD, including hypertension, glucose intolerance and dyslipidemia. Twenty patients with CD unsuccessfully treated by neurosurgery entered the study. Cabergoline was admistered at...

The mTOR and IGF pathways have been suggested to play a role in the pathogenesis of pheochromocytomas (PCC). mTOR inhibitors, as sirolimus (S) and everolimus (E), as well as IGF1R antagonists could be a potential novel treatment for malignant PPC.The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of the main components of the IGF/mTOR pathway in human PCC and to investigate the effects of the mTOR inhibitors S and E and of the IGF1R/insulin receptor (I...