Endocrine Abstracts

It is still debated if the coexistence of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) with a thyroid autoimmune process is associated with a better or worst outcome. Moreover, though a direct relationship between oncogenes and the activation of a pro-inflammatory program has been documented, the genetic background of PTCs with associated autoimmunity is not known.Aim of the present study was to to investigate the clinical and molecular features of PTCs associated or ...

Objectives: Differentiated TCs are generally sensitive to first line treatments and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). However, part of them along with undifferentiated TC, namely Anaplastic (ATC) and Poorly Differentiated (PDTC), are aggressive and show refractoriness to tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs) treatments. A correlation between resistance to TKIs and inactivating TP53 mutations was proven in TC by our group, consistent with data obtained in other tumors. To...

Background: Several adverse events are recorded during treatment with tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Hypocalcemia was reported during phase III clinical trials with both Lenvatinib and Vandetanib, but scanty data are available in a real-life setting. Aim of our study was to evaluate hypocalcemia occurrence and its characteristics in a cohort of patients treated with these drugs for advanced thyroid cancer. Moreover, in patients treated with Lenvatinib, we examined a possib...

Background: Cytology is the gold standard method for the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules, though 25−30% of them are classified as indeterminate and, in some cases, surgery is required for a definitive diagnosis. Aim: In order to reduce unnecessary thyroid surgeries, we set up a ‘thyroid risk score’ (TRS) to increase the diagnostic accuracy in a large series of patients with indeterminate cytology and to apply it to a validation ...

Recently, the G534E variant of the HABP2 gene was reported as the underlying genetic defect in large kindred with non-syndromic familial non medullary thyroid cancer (FNMTC), but these data were not confirmed in additional cohorts. Consistently, we found in our wide series of FNMTC that the HABP2G534E variant is frequent, but does not segregate with the disease. Nevertheless, a possible role for this gene in the pathogenesis of FNMTC cannot definitely ruled out also because co...

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...

Objective: Diabetes mellitus is characterized by vascular complications associated with arterial thickening. Although strict glycaemic control is clinically beneficial, limited or no evidence exists as to whether arterial damage is positively related to blood glucose levels and variability.Methods: Study purpose was to asses the relationship between arterial thickness and 24 h mean and S.D. of blood glucose in type 1 diabetes. Fifteen type...

Objective: The metabolic syndrome (MS) is characterized by a marked sympathetic activation. Whether this adrenergic overdrive is mainly dependent on the obese state or it can be detected also in absence of obesity is unknown, however.Design and Methods: In 25 male patients (age 41.4±yrs., mean±S.E.M.) with MS (ATP III criteria) and in 12 age-matched healthy male controls, we measured body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC...

Activating mutations of the RET proto-oncogene, encoding a tyrosine kinase receptor, are associated with inherited syndromes, MEN2A and MEN2B, and with both familial and sporadic medullary thyroid cancer (MTC). Single base-pair missense mutations in the extracellular cysteine-rich domain are responsible for the majority of MEN2A and familial MTC (FMTC) cases. Rarely, somatic deletions and germline duplications of variable segments of the gene have been reported in spora...

Objectives: Well differentiated thyroid cancers (WDTC) are generally sensitive to first line treatments or eventually to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). However, a part of WDTC together with poorly differentiated (PDTC) and anaplastic (ATC) thyroid cancers are particularly aggressive and refractory to all treatments, TKIs included. Since TKIs resistance is proven to be related with the presence of TP53 mutations in other tumours, and TP53 alterations are f...