Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: Glucocorticoid excess impairs immune function, thereby predisposing patients with endogenous Cushing’s syndrome (CS) to infections. However, it is still not clear whether there is a CS-subtype specific pattern in white blood cell (WBC) and WBC differential (WBCD) count.Methods: Retrospective monocentric cohort study in patients with either overt endogenous CS or adrenal adenomas with autonomous cortisol secretion (ACS), with WBC and WBCD ...

Background: Standard treatment for advanced adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is mitotane in monotherapy or combined with etoposide, doxorubicin and cisplatin (EDP), yet biomarkers predictive of treatment response are lacking. Inflammation-based scores were proposed as predictors for gemcitabine+capecitabine efficacy, used as second-line in progressive ACC. We investigated the role of inflammation-based scores in predicting response to first-line treatment in advanced ACC.<p ...

Background: Molecular mechanisms of malignant adrenocortical tumorigenesis remain elusive despite previous comprehensive genomic studies. Nonetheless, cellular heterogeneity of primary, recurrent and metastatic adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) haven’t been fully investigated.Aim: To characterize the molecular profile of different cell subtypes in primary, recurrent and metastatic ACC by single-nuclei RNA sequencing (snRNA-Seq), using adult human norma...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare malignant tumour with heterogeneous outcome. Prognostic classification relies on individual clinical/histopathological parameters that have limited performance. Recent studies proposed the use of selected DNA-based biomarkers to improve prognostication of ACC. Aim of the study was to perform a comparative analysis of DNA-based biomarkers (BM) for prognostic assessment of ACC by evaluating their added value to the established prognostic ...

Background: Treatment for advanced adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) consists of mitotane alone or combined with etoposide, doxorubicin and cisplatin (EDP), yet their efficacy is limited and burdened with significant toxicity. Moreover, markers of response are lacking. Inflammation-based scores have been proposed as prognostic factors in several malignancies including ACC, and recently also as predictors of gemcitabine+capecitabine efficacy, second-line treatment in progressive d...

Context: Endogenous Cushing syndrome (CS) is associated with hematological abnormalities. Nevertheless, conflicting data have been reported on erythropoiesis. Some studies reported an association between CS and anemia in men, whereas others described erythrocytosis in affected patients. Furthermore, it is unclear whether there are CS subtype-specific changes in red blood cells (RBC) parameters.Objective: To investigate sex and subtype-specific changes in...

Background: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare aggressive cancer with limited treatment options for advanced stages. By targeted RNA expression screening, we identified polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) as one of most overexpressed genes, thus representing a potential drug target for ACC. PLK1 inhibitors are under evaluation in clinical trials for other solid cancers and seem to be more effective in TP53 mutated tumours. The aim of the study was to evaluate PLK1 protein levels i...

Background and aim: Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NEN) show increasing incidence and varying biology, but epidemiological and clinical data for other than gastroenteropancreatic (GEP) and thoracic NEN are scattered. Furthermore the best therapeutic approach in NEN arising in uncommon sites is still debated. Aim of this study is to assess the epidemiological and clinical features of NEN arising in uncommon sites in a monocentric series of a referral center.Ma...

Ad Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is an aggressive tumour and treatment remains unsatisfactory in advanced disease. Activation of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is considered causative for metastatic spread in a variety of human cancers. Accordingly, new drugs were developed specifically targeting EMT with a focus on hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/HGF receptor (c-MET) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF)/FGF receptor (FGFR) signalling.We here a...

Background: Adrenocortical tumours consist of frequent adrenocortical adenomas (ACA) and highly malignant (ACC) with a still incompletely understood pathogenesis. Dysregulation of Notch signalling pathway is implicated in several cancers with oncogenic or tumour suppressor functions. Copy number gains and over-expression of Jagged1, a ligand of Notch receptor, was reported in ACC. The aim of the study was to evaluate the expression of Jagged1 and other Notch-r...