Endocrine Abstracts

The most frequent mutation in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the p.V600E of the BRAF gene. This mutation leads to the aberrant activation of the RAS / BRAF / MEK / ERK pathway and consequently to the under-regulation of thyroid-specific genes, resulting in uncontrolled growth and de-differentiation of cancer cells. In this work, we analyzed the transcriptomics data produced by the TCGA project using a network approach. The analysis led to the identification of r...

Introduction: Differenziated thyroid carcinomas (DTC), particularly papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTCs), usually have an indolent behavior, howewer 10-20% of the patients develop recurrences, following surgery. There are several histological features associated with more frequent recurrences as the hystopathological variants of PTCs, the presence of vascular invasion or lymph node metastases and the presence of extrathyroidal extension (ETE). Case history: a 56yrs old male pat...

Background: MiRNAs transported by exosomes play a role in various processes of tumorigenesis and tumor progression. They can function as oncogenes able to structurally and biologically change the tumor microenvironment (TME) therefore playing a crucial role in cell-to-cell communication during tumor development and allowing cancer cells to become invasive and disseminate from the primary site to distant locations.We aimed to identify the exosome miRNAs that may be involved in ...

Objective: We developed a novel dual-component molecular assay as an ancillary method to improve clinical decision-making in patients with cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules. The assay includes next-generation sequencing (NGS) based detection of mutations in 23 thyroid cancer related genes and digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) evaluation of the expression levels of a microRNA strongly associated with thyroid cancer. The method was designed as a “rule-out&#...

Background: Deciding whether patients with a cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodule should be referred for surgery or for active surveillance is an important challenge for clinicians. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a novel dual-component molecular assay as an ancillary molecular method for resolving indeterminate thyroid nodule cytology.Methods: We selected 156 thyroid nodules from those that had undergone both FNA cytology ...

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak in Italy forced the health system to cancel all non-urgent outpatient activities, to avoid further spreading of the disease inside the healthcare facilities. At our institution, for cancer patients the hospital allowed treatments and consultations: the medical team, however, identified patients whose procedures could be postponed. Even after May 2020, the capacity for non-urgent thyroid surgeries was reduced. These events enhanced our efforts ...

Radioiodide 131I (RAI) is the therapy of choice for radioiodine-avid differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). However, 5–15% of DTC patients become RAI refractory (RAIR), and the 10-year survival rate for metastatic disease decreases to 10%. The failure of RAI response is mainly due to the loss of thyroid differentiation, that leads to the loss of expression/function of components of iodide metabolism, first of all the Na/I symporter (NIS). The finding that the MAPK pathway i...