Endocrine Abstracts

The discussion which prognostic factors are the most reliable to adequately assess the risk of cancer related death and relapse in differentiated thyroid cancers [DTC] is ongoing. To date, age at diagnosis and distant metastases were considered as the most important risk factors. Among other factors, that may influence both overall and disease free survival, were male sex, some histopathological features such as: tumor diameter, tumor grade, aggressive histotype, extrathyroida...

Analysis of RET germline mutations, now a routine element of diagnostic algorithm in medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), influences follow up of MTC patients but at present has less impact on treatment modalities, which are the same in hereditary and sporadic disease. Microarray analyses confirm that molecular profile is rather similar in both MTC forms.In hereditary MTC, RET mutation screening in families at risk allows to find asymptomatic mutation carr...

Introduction: Therapy with somatostatin analouges is usually ineffective to remove hormonal symptoms in patients with functional pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNET). Alternative treatment modalities, to control symptoms of excessive hormonal production, are necessary. Thus, the aim of our study was to evaluate results of radiopeptide treatment in patient with functional pNET.Materials and methods: 92 patients with pNET (49 women and 43 men, median ag...

Introduction: Pathogenesis of pituitary adenomas is largely unknown thus, identification of genes specific for various types of pituitary tumors should enable better understanding of their biology.The aim of our study was to analyze differences in gene expression between functional (FA) and non-functional (NFA) pituitary adenomas. For this goal, we considered folate receptor (FOLR1) shown by previous study (Evans et al. 2003) to be overexpr...

The routine use of adjuvant RAI treatment in low-risk DTC remains controversial due to the lack of unequivocal evidences of its effectiveness in radically operated subjects. The aim of the study was a retrospective evaluation of long-term outcomes of combined DTC treatment to evaluate the impact of adjuvant RAI therapy in the low risk group. Primary hypothesis was: ‘if adjuvant RAI treatment was unnecessary, a delay in RAI administration would have no impact on long-term ...

Introduction: Reliable prognostic factors are crucial to choose the optimal treatment strategy and follow-up for differentiated thyroid carcinomas (DTC) patients. Thus, the aim of the study was a retrospective evaluation of prognostic factors of cancer relapse in patients treated in a single institution.Material: The study group consisted of 510 DTC patients, staged pT1b-T4N0-N1M0, treated with total thyroidectomy followed by complementary 131...

Objectives: Recent studies on BRAFV600E mutation, known as initiating event in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and related to more aggressive clinical course of the disease, revealed its significant influence on gene expression profile suggesting that BRAF(+)PTCs represent a molecular subtype of PTC. However, the human material disables distinction of possible molecular causes of cancer from its effects, unlike the mouse model. The main goal of our project was to find genes ...

Calcitonin assessment in thyroid diseases is recommended when medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is suspected in fine needle biopsy, as well as in ‘suspicious for a follicular neoplasm’ class, especially oxyphilic type, in patients with germinal RET proto-oncogene mutation and in nondiagnostic biopsy when no surgical treatment is planned. This assessment is also suggested before any planned thyroid surgery to exclude MTC. Beyond diagnosis confirmation it is also suggeste...

Background: The genetic predisposition of Graves’ disease (GD) was proved by the identification of genes with substantial, non-interactive effects on the disease process. It is known, however, that genetic interactions significantly increase the likelihood of immune-tolerance-related complex diseases like allergic asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. In the present study we analyzed the effects of interactions of multiple loci on the genetic predisposition to GD patients....

Introduction: Pheochromocytomas are rare neuroendocrine tumors arising from chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla. Approximately 10% of all pheochromocytomas are malignant. There is no effective therapy for malignant pheochromocytoma (MAL-PHEO) and the overall prognosis is poor.Case report: We report 22-year survival with MAL-PHEO in a patient treated with several surgeries, 131I-metaiodobenzylguanidine and, subsequently, with long-acting fo...