Endocrine Abstracts

ObjectiveSurgery is the only curative treatment for primary hyperparathyroidism. Minimally invasive parathyroidectomy is superior in terms of cure and complication rates and is less costly than inpatient bilateral cervical exploration. Preoperative localization of parathyroid adenoma by imaging is a requirement for outpatient minimally invasive surgery. One of the most frequently used imaging techniques for parathyroid adenoma localization is Tc99m-sesta...

IntroductionPheochromocytomas (PHEO) and paragangliomas (PGL) are neuroendocrine tumors arising from the chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla and extra-adrenal autonomic paraganglia, respectively. They are rare and generally benign neuroendocrine tumors. However, malignancy (defined as the evidence of metastases in nonchromaffin sites distant from the primary tumor) occurs in 2 to 26%. Malignant PHEO and PGL are very challenging malignancies associate...

IntroductionParathyroid carcinoma (CaPa) is an extremely rare cause of primary hyperparathyroidism. Patients with CaPa usually present severe hypercalcemia with abrupt bone and renal diseases, neurologic manifestations and gastrointestinal symptoms. However, sometimes the presentation is insidious with nonspecific symptoms and mild hypercalcemia. Surgery is the only curative treatment and after surgery close monitoring of calcium levels are necessary due...

Pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs) constitute approximately 15% of all intracranial tumors and comprise a varied type of neoplasms that, despite being rarely metastatic, can cause severe comorbidities and increased mortality related to the mass effects and hormonal hypersecretion. The high expression levels of somatostatin and dopamine receptors in these tumors has led to the use of somatostatin analogues (SSAs) and dopamine agonists (DAs) as pharmacological treatments....

Chimeric somatostatin (SST)/dopamine (DA) compounds, termed dopastatins, such as BIM-23A760, an agonist for SST (sst2 and ss5) and DA (D2) receptors, are emerging as promising new approaches to treat pituitary adenomas. However, their actions and mechanisms on the different types of pituitary tumours are still incompletely understood. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyse a set of key functional parameters (signaling pathways, hormonal expression and secretion, cell viabi...

Somatostatin analogs (SSA) are a first-line treatment for pituitary adenomas (PA). Indeed, multi-receptor targeting SSA such as octreotide and pasireotide are being successfully used to control hormone secretion and/or tumor growth. Unfortunately, many PA escape from SSA-therapy, which could be related to somatostatin receptor (sst) presence, abundance, availability and/or signaling. In order to better define the molecular/cellular features associated to octreotide and pasireo...

Non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFPAs) represent the most common type of pituitary adenomas. NFPAs are mostly macroadenomas (>1 cm) at diagnosis and, despite their lack of functional hormone hypersecretion, are associated to severe comorbidities related to mass effect (i.e. headaches, visual defects and hypopituitarism). Transsphenoidal surgery is the mainstay of NFPAs treatment, although it is often not definitive, mainly due to the invasion of neighboring intracrania...

Background: Hypophosphatasia (HPP) is a rare, inherited metabolic disease caused by deficient activity of tissue nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNSALP).Methods: Baseline/pretreatment data from the Global HPP Registry were analyzed to compare HPP disease burden between adults (≥18 years of age) with skeletal manifestations (history of rickets, biopsy-proven osteomalacia, recurrent or poorly healing fractures/pseudofractures, etc; Skeletal group) ...

Mesonephric adenocarcinoma (MA) is an uncommon gynecologic tumor that are thought to arise from embryonal remnants of the mesonephric ducts, also known as Wolffian ducts. Mesonephric-like adenocarcinoma (MLA), despite absence of Wolffian origin, have similar morphology and immunophenotype and exhibit molecular aberrations like MA. These tumors are generally negative for estrogen and progesterone receptor.Case Report: An 83-year-old Spanish female was ref...

Introduction: Thyroid nodule is a frequent condition, being diagnosed in up to 70% of subjects who had undergone thyroid ultrasound. Around 90-95% of them became being benign and, if the do not cause compressive symptoms or esthetical problems, they do not need specific therapy, only clinical follow up. Traditionally, thyroidectomy has been the main therapeutic option in these cases. Radiofrequency and ethanol ablations are recently introduced non-invasive therapies that permi...