Endocrine Abstracts

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are rare neoplasms showing a wide spectrum of clinical behaviors. The therapeutic options available for NET treatment are rarely curative and most are palliative, as NETs frequently show resistance to pharmacological therapy. Cancers develop in complex tissue environments, which they depend upon for sustained growth, invasion and metastasis. A major characteristic of the tumor microenvironment is inflammatory cell infiltration, where tumor-associat...

Metformin (1.1-dimethylbiguanide hydrochloride), a widely used antidiabetic drug, has been reported to display potent anticancer properties in various types of cancers, including neuroendocrine tumors. Recently, a potential synergistic activity between metformin and octreotide (SSA) in Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors (P-NETs) has been proposed. AIP (aryl hydrocarbon receptor-interacting protein) acts as tumor suppressor gene in neuroendocrine tumors at pituitary level and it ...

Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) are rare tumour showing a wide spectrum of clinical behaviours. Therapeutic options available for NET treatment are rarely curative and mostly palliative, as NETs frequently show resistance to pharmacological therapy. Cancers develop in complex tissue environments, which they depend on. Tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) are a major cellular component of the tumour microenvironment. Two polarized state of macrophages are described in literatur...

Somatostatin receptor type 2 (SST2) is the main pharmacological target of long-acting somatostatin analogues (SSA) widely used in patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (P-NETs). A subset of patients is resistant to SSA, although the molecular mechanisms responsible for resistance are poorly understood. Several studies identified cytoskeleton protein interactions as determinant in receptor anchoring, expression and signalling. Since SST2 was recently demonstrated to a...

cAMP is an ubiquitous second messenger that is implicated in the regulation of a wide variety of cell functions, including cell proliferation that is differently affected depending on the cell type. Although the effects exerted by cAMP were initially attributed to PKA activation, two exchange proteins directly activated by cAMP (Epac1/2) have been identified as cAMP targets able to mediate several cAMP effects. Aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cAMP on neuroen...

Treatment options for neuroendocrine tumors (NET), including everolimus, are rarely curative, as NETs frequently show resistance to medical therapy. In fact, the use of everolimus, an mTOR inhibitor, is limited by the development of resistance, probably due to the activation of Akt signalling. Metformin seems to have anticancer effects in neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). A recent retrospective study found longer progression-free-survival in diabetic pancreatic neuroendocrine tumo...