Endocrine Abstracts

Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer in the UK. Currently there is a lack of pre-clinical models to predict patient’s response to treatment for prostate cancer. Identifying which patients will respond best to treatment avoids exposing patients to treatment side effects unnecessarily. Primary cell culture provides a translational model to predict individual patient’s response to drug treatments. In this study, we develop a technique for isolation, propagatio...

Mutations of the RET proto-oncogene are associated with MEN and FMTC and aid diagnosis and predictive testing in family members. Genotype-phenotype correlations are also used to plan therapeutic decisions. We describe a 4 generation family with a rare E768D mutation in exon 13. The index case was diagnosed with MTC at age 54 and remains free of clinical disease 11 years following thyroidectomy and neck irradiation. 2 further family members were identified with MTC at age 25 an...

Current therapies for locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer aim to inhibit androgen receptor (AR) activation directly or by depleting androgens via androgen deprivation therapy. However this therapeutic approach eventually fails in ~80% of patients, leading to development of castrate resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). There are currently few therapeutic options available for CRPC with limited prognostic or predictive biomarkers. The aim of the current study was to dete...

Dopamine agonist therapy is an effective long-term treatment in >90% of patients with hyperprolactinaemia, controlling both prolactin secretion and tumour growth. We describe the unusual late emergence of resistance to high-dose dopamine agonist treatment in two recent female patients. Both women presented with secondary amenorrhoea, were shown to have high prolactin levels and a pituitary microadenoma. Each had an excellent initial response to bromocriptine but years late...