Endocrine Abstracts

Cushing’s Syndrome (CS) is associated with a severe myopathy mainly affecting type 2 muscle fibres, with a higher prevalence in male subjects. The excess of glucocorticoids (GC) levels represents the most common cause of myopathy due to an alteration of protein metabolism. The non-coding post-transcriptional gene regulators muscle-specific microRNAs (miRNA) control muscle development and differentiation but when dysregulated lead to skeletal muscle (SM) disorder. The aim ...

Conventional glucocorticoids (CGCs) are unable to mimic physiological cortisol rhythm in adrenal insufficiency (AI), resulting in increased metabolic morbidity and impaired quality of life (QoL). Non-physiological cortisol pattern and elevated evening cortisol levels may be responsible for the increased risk of metabolic disorders observed in AI patients under CGCs. Once daily dual-release-hydrocortisone (DR-HC), which better reproduces physiological daily cortisol profile, si...

HCC is a difficult-to-treat- cancer with poor prognosis. Despite EVOLVE-1 trial demonstrated that EVE did not improve overall survival in molecularly and clinically unselected patients with advanced sorafenib resistant HCC, in selected patients, the established antitumor effect of EVE could make this drug a potential adjuvant therapy. Unfortunately, the acquired EVE resistance due to the tumour adaptation to chronic drug use is a current challenge. VitD has been deemed as pote...

Conventional glucocorticoids (GCs) are unable to mimic physiological cortisol rhythm in adrenal insufficiency (AI), with a significant impact on morbidity and mortality. Possible explanations are supra-physiological doses and impaired cortisol profile. In particular, elevated evening cortisol levels were related to glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity alterations and visceral obesity. Once-daily-dual-release-hydrocortisone (OD-DR-HC), better reproducing the physiological ...

HCC is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Local approaches are generally preferred for patients whose disease is restricted to the liver. In patients with extrahepatic disease systemic therapy can be considered. Chemotherapy did not demonstrate convincing survival advantages in several trails for HCC patients. Presently, the kinase inhibitor sorafenib is the only approved systemic target therapy for the treatment of advanced HCC. Mitotane (dichlorodiphenildichloroe...

HCC is a difficult-to-treat- cancer with poor prognosis. The recent EVOLVE-1 trial demonstrated that EVE did not improve overall survival in molecularly and clinically unselected patients with advanced HCC resistant to sorafenib treatment. In selected patients, the well-established antitumor effect of EVE could make this drug a potential adjuvant therapy. Unfortunately, the acquired resistance to this molecule due to the tumor adaptation to chronic drug use is a current challe...

Adrenal insufficiency (AI) requires life-long glucocorticoid (GC) treatment, which is associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome (MS), probably due to cortisol overexposure for multiple drug daily doses, together with an impairment of quality of life (QoL). Moreover treatment compliance (TC) is reported to be suboptimal in AI patients. The current study aimed at investigating the impact of the switch from twice/thrice daily conventional GCs to once daily dual-rele...

In patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency, life-long glucocorticoid (GC) treatment is often required to replace cortisol deficiency and to avoid the ACTH-dependent androgen levels increase. However, in these patients, the multiple daily doses required with conventional GCs can cause cortisol overexposure, leading to an increased risk of metabolic syndrome (MS), an impaired quality of life (QoL), and poor treatment compliance (TC). T...

Life-long glucocorticoid (GC) treatment is needed in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency in order to replace cortisol deficiency and to control ACTH and consequently androgen levels. Therefore, patients with CAH tend to have an increased risk of metabolic syndrome (MS), probably due to cortisol overexposure, caused by multiple daily doses of conventional GCs, unable to mimic cortisol circadian rhythm. The current study aimed at i...

Background: Several evidences suggested that conventional glucocorticoids (CGCs) used as replacement treatment in adrenal insufficiency (AI) are inadequate to mimic physiological cortisol circadian rhythm (CCR), and that CCR disruption, represented by non-physiological pattern of peaks and troughs and elevated evening GC levels, might be responsible for the increased metabolic and, consequently, cardiovascular risk. It has been demonstrated that once daily dual-release-hydroco...