Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Targeted therapy with the multi-kinase inhibitor sorafenib is effective for treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) unresponsive to RAI. Although kinase-inhibitors (KIs) are usually well tolerated, severe and even fatal adverse events are reported. Aim of the study was to assess incidence and characteristics of fatal events in patients with RAI-refractory DTC responsive to treatment with sorafenib.Design: A retrospective analysis o...

Introduction: Paragangliomas are neuroectodermal tumors that arise from adrenal medulla or extra-adrenal ganglia and are characterized by high vascularisation. A high rate of these tumours is genetically inherited. For malignant paragangliomas, chemo- and radio-therapy are potentially effective, but tumor response is of short duration and patient prognosis is quite poor. Sunitinib is a tyrosine-kinase inhibitor, targeting VEGFR1, -2, PDGFRα, -β, RET and c-Kit. Recent...

Introduction: Kinase-inhibitors (KIs) are effective for treatment of most aggressive endocrine cancers. The crucial point about treatment with KIs is that these agents are not curative and their effects are at best transitory and are always followed by a restoration of tumour growth and progression. Several retrospective and phase II studies demonstrated efficacy of both sorafenib and sunitib for treatment of iodine refractory differentiated thyroid cancer although results fro...

Introduction: Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumor in which somatostatin receptor (sst) expression is higher for sst1 and sst5 than for sst2. This may explain why the available sst2–selective analogues do not work in these patients and why pasireotide (SOM230), a novel, multi-receptor targeted somatostatin analogue with high-binding affinity for sst1,2,3 and sst5 coul...

Introduction: Italy is considered a country with high prevalence of 25 OH vitamin D deficiency. Changes in vitamin D serum levels were linked with the onset and progression of several diseases, including osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases. The hypopituitary patients show several comorbidities like cardiovascular diseases and osteoporosis.Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in hypopituitary patients.Pat...

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein (AIP) gene is abundantly expressed in normal somatotrophs. Somatotropinomas in patients with germline AIP mutations (AIPmut) are typically more aggressive than non-AIPmut adenomas and associated with higher GH/IGF1 secretion. AIP downregulation may also occur in sporadic somatotropinomas, especially in invasive tumours. We wished to evaluate the impact of somatostatin analogues (SSA) pre-treatment on AIP expression in sporadic ...

Background: Phosphoprotein enriched in diabetes (PED) is a scaffold protein widely produced in different tissues; it is involved in multiple cellular functions, including insulin-regulated glucose transport. Previous findings showed that in individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) the PED gene is overexpressed in skeletal muscle (SM) and adipose tissue (AT), both target tissues for insulin activity. Our group has recently evidenced that PED protein is also expressed in periphera...

Induced radiofrequency thermal ablation is cytoreductive treatment of symptomatic benign thyroid nodules, metastatic and recurrent thyroid tumors and papillary thyroid microcarcinomas. It is a safe and effective alternative to surgery and it allows to obtain satisfactory results in terms of volumetric reduction of the nodule with significant improvement in the quality of life. The trans-isthmic approach and the moving shot technique are the two basic techniques; however, an ad...

IntroductionAIP is a predisposing gene for GH/PRL-secreting PitNETs. Clinically non-functioning PitNETs (NFPT) occasionally occur in the setting of AIP germline mutations, sometimes arising from Pit-1 lineages. However, AIP overexpression has been observed in unselected NFPT and associations with the gonadotroph phenotype and/or tumour aggressiveness were suggested. We wished to evaluate the significance of AIP expression in gonadotroph tumours defined b...

Somatic mutations in the ubiquitin specific peptidase 8 (USP8) gene have been associated with higher levels of somatostatin (SS) receptor subtype 5 (SSTR5) in adrenocorticotroph hormone (ACTH)-secreting pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs). However, a correlation between the USP8 mutational status and favorable responses to pasireotide, the somatostatin multi-receptor ligand acting especially on SSTR5, has not been investigated yet. Here, we studied the impact of USP8 mut...