Endocrine Abstracts

Medical treatment of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is limited to common cytotoxic agents, which are usually given in combination with mitotane (M). Recently, we investigated together with M the effects of i) the classical EDP protocol (etoposide, doxorubicin, and cisplatin) and ii) a novel paclitaxel containing scheme PDP (paclitaxel, doxorubicin, and cisplatin) on human NCIh295 cells indicating anti-tumoral superiority of PDP-M over EDP-M regarding cell viability (P...

Vascular disrupting agents (VDAs) differ from angiogenesis inhibitors by attacking established tumor blood vessels rather than preventing growth of new ones. We investigated effects of the tumor-VDA ASA404 against neuroendocrine tumors of the gastroenteropancreatic system (GEP-NETs) and adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) 24 h after treatment of BON and NCIh295 tumor bearing mice with ASA404 (A), paclitaxel (P) or the combined administration (A+P). A significant decrease in cell pr...

Only two human cell lines are available for adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) which do not reflect the functional heterogeneity of individual patient tumors and metastases. To overcome the lack of preclinical models for testing of novel therapeutic options in recent years we aimed at the development of patient-individual tumor models for endocrine tumors. Therefore, pieces of surgically excised patient tumors were implanted subcutaneously in the neck of athymic nude mice. To inve...

ASA404 (Vadimezan) belongs to a class of agents with disrupting properties against tumor vasculature. Herein, putative therapeutic applicability was investigated in preclinical models for neuroendocrine tumors of the gastroenteropancreatic system (BON) and adrenocortical carcinoma (NCIh295). Upon treatment of tumor bearing mice we detected a significant disruption of microvessels, decrease in cell proliferation, increase of apoptotic cells and extensive necrosis in BON tumors ...

In an attempt to amend the lack of preclinical models for endocrine tumors, we recently initiated establishment of patient-individual tumor models. Pieces from four adrenocortical carcinomas (ACC), one aldosterone producing adenoma (APA), one pheochromocytoma (pheo), one metastasis of a malignant pheo, one pheo and medullary thyroid carcinoma associated with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 and 11 neuroendocrine tumors (NETs, nine NETs of the gastroenteropancreatic system i...

To date, the in depth analysis of the key molecular mechanisms involved in functional autonomy and tumor formation in aldosterone producing adenomas has been hampered by the rarity of the disease and the lack of adequate tumor cell lines. Herein, we cultivated a primary cell culture of an aldosterone producing adenoma taken from a 40 year old male patient with a left sided adrenal tumor mass. The cells have been passaged 24 times and still continue to grow after nearly 11 mont...