Endocrine Abstracts

Studies on the distribution of Somatostatin Receptor (sst)-subtypes on endocrine tumors, the development of sst-subtype specific analogues, the elucidation of phenomena like receptor desensitization and ligand-receptor internalization, and the potential consequences (and reversal) of the epigenetic silencing of sst offer new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities in endocrine diseases:1. apart from sst2 activation, Somatostatin analogues target...

The ERCUSYN (European Registry on Cushing’s syndrome (CS)) study is a project funded by the European Commission Public Health Program (PHP 800200), of which the ESE is one of the 41 Partners from 25 countries. The aims include obtaining prospective and follow-up data at EU level on epidemiology, mortality, outcome of therapies, co-morbidities, assessment of diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, quality of life evaluation using a disease-generated questionnaire (CushingQo...

Introduction: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare, but highly malignant endocrine tumor. Surgery is the primary choice of treatment. In case of inoperable disease or tumor recurrence, therapy with the adrenolytic drug mitotane is usually applied. Plasma mitotane concentrations of >14 mg/l (50 μM) seem required for an effect on tumor mass. Despite its clinical use, the effects of mitotane on cell proliferation and hormone production have been poorly investigated <...

Adrenocortical cancer (ACC) is a rare cancer with poor prognosis and scant treatment options. Mitotane alone, or in combination with cytotoxic chemotherapy, represents the referral current treatment for patients with unresectable ACC. Recent studies have shown that mTOR inhibitors suppress growth of ACC cells. This study aimed at evaluating the effects of mitotane in combination with mTOR inhibitors. In H295 and SW13 cells we tested the effects of a 6 day treatment with increa...

Background: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is an uncommon malignancy with a still scantily understood pathogenesis and generally poor prognosis. Surgery, performed at early stages, offers the best chance for cure, but unfortunately, it is often noncurative. Medical treatment produced disappointing responses. mTOR inhibitors, such as sirolimus (S) and temsirolimus (T), are promising antineoplastic drugs in several types of carcinomas.Methods: To evaluate ...

Chronic exposure to hypercortisolism significantly impacts on patient’s health and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). We developed a disease-generated questio-nnaire to evaluate HRQoL in Cushing’s syndrome (CS) (CushingQoL); in 125 (104 females) patients recruited in Spain, France, Germany, The Netherlands and Italy, clinical and hormonal data were collected and correlated with results of the generic SF-36 questionnaire, a question on self-perceived general heal...

Dopamine receptors (DR) are expressed in the majority of corticotroph pituitary tumors and the dopamine agonist cabergoline is effective in controlling cortisol hypersecretion in around 50% of patients with Cushing’s disease (CD). In order to characterize the tumors expressing D2 receptors and the profile of patients which might respond to the treatment with D2 agonists, the current study has the aim to correlate D2 receptor expression and...

Dopamine receptors was suggested to be expressed in medullary thyroid cancer (MTC). The aim of the current study was to evaluate the expression of D2 dopamine receptor in MTC and the effectiveness of the dopamine agonist cabergoline in patients with MTC. Five paraffin-embedded cases of MTC obtained after thyroidectomy were used to evaluate D2 receptor expression by immunohistochemistry. Fifteen patients (7 males, 8 females, 36–78 years) with post-sur...

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...