Endocrine Abstracts

Oxidative stress (OS) can have an impact both in the pathogenesis and in the progression of TC, as it has been shown to induce oncogenes and inhibit tumor suppressors. The main source of cellular ROS is represented by NADPH oxidases (NOXs). Aims of the study were to investigate the NOX-derived OS in TC samples, benign nodules and corresponding normal tissues, and to correlate the level of OS with histological classification, genetic profile and clinical and prognostic features...

TERT is the protein component of the telomerase enzyme and is overexpressed in many cancer types. The most well-known role for TERT is the regeneration of telomeres allowing the avoidance of senescence and the continued proliferation of stem and cancer cells. Recent studies have identified other roles for TERT in compartments outside the nucleus, in particular in mitochondria, with a protective role against endogenous and therapy-induced oxidative stress (OS). A small subset o...

Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine tumor and its incidence has increased faster than in any other malignancy. Although TCs are usually well differentiated, disease recurrence or persistence is high, because of local and distant metastasis and therapeutic resistance. Among the different genetic alterations, BRAFV600E is the most frequent one. Several studies tried to establish a correlation between BRAFV600E and patients outcome, with controversial results. Nevert...

Background: Cytology is the gold standard method for the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules, though 25−30% of them are classified as indeterminate and, in some cases, surgery is required for a definitive diagnosis. Aim: In order to reduce unnecessary thyroid surgeries, we set up a ‘thyroid risk score’ (TRS) to increase the diagnostic accuracy in a large series of patients with indeterminate cytology and to apply it to a validation ...

The thyroid differentiation score (TDS), calculated on the expression levels of 16 thyroid metabolism and function genes, was introduced by the Cancer Genome Atlas to characterize the differentiation status in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). TDS has been reported to be significantly lower in BRAF-like than in RAS-like PTCs. Nevertheless, scanty data are available about TDS in either other malignant cancers or in benign thyroid nodules. The aim of the present study was to an...

FAM83B has been recently identified as an oncogene involved in the development and progression of several malignancies, but its role in thyroid cancers (TC) is still unclear. In the present study, we examined the expression of FAM83B and its possible involvement in cell migration and differentiation, in neoplastic and normal thyroid tissues and in TC human cell lines. We found that FAM83B expression in TC varies according to tumor histotype, being si...

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is effective in the treatment of thyroid nodules, leading to a 50-90% reduction with respect to baseline. Current guidelines indicate the need for a benign cytology prior to RFA, though, on the other side, this procedure is also successfully used for the treatment of papillary microcarcinomas. No specific indications are available for nodules with an indeterminate cytology (Bethesda III and IV). Aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficac...