Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare cancer associated with hereditary syndromes in 10% of cases. However, data on germline variants (GVs) in adult patients with sporadic ACC are limited.Methods: We analyzed germline DNA from 150 adult patients with sporadic ACC sequentially referred to our centers between 1998-2019. We designed a custom panel of 17 genes potentially involved in the pathogenesis of ACC: AIP, APC, ARMC5, ARNT, BRCA1, BRCA2...

A thorough pre-operative hormonal workup is advised following the recommendations of the European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors. Demonstration of endocrine activity may serve to the following purposes: i) prove adrenocortical origin of the mass; ii) suggest malignancy, in the event of androgen hypersecretion; iii) provide tumor markers whose assessment may be exploited during follow-up to detect tumor residual or recurrence after surgery; iv) avoid life-threatening p...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare tumour characterized by a dismal prognosis. The most important predictor of outcome is the possibility to attain a complete resection and prognosis is extremely poor when complete surgical removal of ACC is not feasible. Most patients have resectable disease at presentation; however, fully half of the patients who have undergone complete removal of the tumour are destined to relapse. The high recurrence rate of ACC has prompted many inv...

Introduction: That acromegaly may cause cancer remains an unsolved issue. Aim of the present study was to assess the standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of different types of cancer in a nationwide multicenter cohort study in Italy on acromegalic patients who have been treated in the somatostatin-receptor ligands era.Methods and design: We have evaluated the prevalence of neoplasia from a series of 1512 patients who were proactively followed in 24 terti...

Relacorilant is a highly selective glucocorticoid receptor modulator that antagonizes the effects of excess cortisol while showing no significant affinity for the mineralocorticoid and progesterone receptors. In a Phase 2 study in patients with endogenous hypercortisolism, relacorilant demonstrated improvements in glycemic and hypertension control with no treatment-related hypokalemia or antiprogesterone effects. An international, multicenter, Phase 3 clinical trial, using ran...

Introduction: Cortisol autonomy may be frequently demonstrated in patients with adrenal incidentaloma and this has been associated to increased cardiovascular (CV) risk. However, only few data are available on CV events and related mortality in such patients. Aims of the study were: 1) to stratify CV events and mortality by the degree of cortisol secretion; 2) to evaluate the effect of adrenalectomy on CV events and mortality.Methods and Design: Data of ...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare tumour characterised by a high rate of recurrence following radical surgery. Surgery of recurrent ACC may increase survival; thus, it is mandatory a timely and accurate detection of recurrence, either to increase the chance of radical extirpation or to avoid unnecessary surgery. This study investigated the role of PET–CT in the diagnosis of recurrence of ACC during follow-up of disease-free patients and analyzed whether this tool m...

Objective: In vitro data suggest that somatostatin receptors (SSTR) and mTOR pathways might represent reasonable targets for novel therapies, since are involved in growth of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). However, in vitro analysis of combination treatments, targeting both mTOR and SSTR as compared to mitotane, and detailed tissue typing mTOR/SSTR pathway are poorly explored in ACC.Methods: This study was designed to characterize the t...

This study presents epidemiological data of 1512 Italian acromegalic patients who had been diagnosed from 1980 to 2002 and followed-up for more than 10 years, retrospectively collected by 24 tertiary referral centers. Data on co-morbidities and mortality were compared to those of the general Italian population obtained by the Italian National Institute of Statistic. At diagnosis median age of patients (41% M, 59% F) was 46 years, GH (mean±S.D.) 31±37 m...

The aim of the present study was to compare the assessment of BMD measured either by DEXA or by QUS in patients with AI. We evaluated 40 patients with AI, who underwent an evaluation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and bone densitometry measured either by DEXA (Hologic QDR 4500 W) at lumbar spine and at femur or QUS (Achilles Express) at the right foot. Subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (SCS) was defined as abnormal response to at least 2 standard tests...