Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Adrenocortical tumors consist in frequent benign adenomas (ACA) and rare highly malignant carcinomas (ACC). BIRC7/livin gene, a member of the inhibitors of apoptosis family, plays an important role in tumorigenesis in a variety of malignancies. Different studies demonstrated that BIRC7 overexpression represent a risk factor for cancer development and progression. The aim of our study was to evaluate the expression of BIRC7 in normal adrenals and adrenocortical tu...

Context: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) are endocrine malignant neoplasms associated with severe aggressiveness. Tumour-related glucocorticoid excess occurs in 60% of patients and is associated with poor prognosis. First clinical trials using immune checkpoint inhibitors are quite unsatisfactory and treatment advancements are urgently needed.Recently, we characterized tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in ACC and identified the detrimental dependency...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare malignancy with heterogeneous but dismal prognosis and despite numerous efforts to improve patient care, effective treatment options are still lacking. ACC in vitro research faces for decades one major obstacle - the unavailability of different ACC cell line models. Here, we present a newly established human ACC cell line that was directly transferred to and now proliferates in cell culture. JIL-O cell line was derived from a p...

Introduction: Onset of hyperkalemia has previously been reported during the administration of hypertonic resuscitation solutions. Since the hypertonic saline infusion test has recently been validated for the diagnosis of diabetes insipidus, we aimed to investigate the course of plasma potassium levels during the test.Material and Methods: Data of 144 patients undergoing osmotic stimulation with hypertonic saline infusion at 11 tertiary medical centres in...

Background: Adrenocortical tumors consist of benign adenomas (ACA) and highly malignant carcinomas (ACC) with a still incompletely understood pathogenesis. Our aim was to test, whether there is evidence for an adenoma-carcinoma sequence.Patients and methods: High-resolution single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarrays (Affymetrix SNP 6.0) were used to detect copy number alterations (CNAs) and copy neutral losses of heterozygosity (cnLOH) in 46 adreno...

Introduction: The genetic mechanisms underlying adrenocortical tumor development are still largely unknown. We used high-resolution single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarrays to detect copy number alterations (CNAs) and copy neutral losses of heterozygosity (cnLOH) in cortisol-secreting adrenocortical adenomas (ACAs). We focused on microalterations aiming to discover new candidate genes involved in early tumorigenesis and/or autonomous cortisol secretion.<p class="ab...

In recent years, it was demonstrated that tumor infiltrating and circulating regulatory and cytotoxic T-cells are associated with clinical outcome in several solid tumors. However, their role in adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) was never studied, although 60% of these tumors secrete autonomously cortisol, a well-established potent immunosuppressant that most likely influences the balance between different T-cells.Firstly, we analyzed the circulating regula...

Adrenal crisis (AC) is a life threatening condition in chronic adrenal insufficiency (AI). Furthermore, recent data demonstrate increased mortality in this patient group.Incidence and causes of adrenal crisis as well as general morbidity and hospitalization was assessed in 472 patients in a prospective trial. Patients were contacted via mail every 6 months and in case of AC additionally by phone to evaluate the exact circumstances of AC. Criteria for AC ...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is part of the Li-Fraumeni tumour syndrome which is due to germline mutations in TP53. Recent studies demonstrate low penetrance mutations leading to later tumour manifestation. Furthermore, in ACC mutations outside the hotspot region have been found. TP53-polymorphisms have also been described to impact on p53 function. We, therefore investigated TP53 sequence alterations in a large cohort of adult patients with ACC.Method...

Background: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare solid tumor with poor prognosis in advanced stages. The adrenolytic drug mitotane and cytotoxic chemotherapies are current treatment options with limited clinical efficacy. Animal experiments pointed to an adrenotoxic effect of sunitinib suggesting potential antineoplastic activity in ACC.Study population: Thirty-eight patients with advanced ACC progressing after mitotane and 1–3 cytotoxic chemoth...