Endocrine Abstracts

In 2006, three major society-endorsed guidelines and consensus reports on the diagnosis and management of thyroid nodules were published by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists/Associazone Medici Endocrinologi (AACE/AME), the American Thyroid Association (ATA) and the European Thyroid Association (ETA). Despite many similarities and areas with lack of evidence, significant differences between these guidelines are also present, reflecting differences in disease...

The initial management of differentiated thyroid cancer is based on total thyroidectomy and radioiodine ablative therapy. Less radical treatment is advocate only in unifocal microcarcinomas. Following initial treatment, long term follow-up is initiated, aimed to the early discovery of persistent or recurrent disease. Follow-up strategies has changed in recent years, after the introduction in the clinical practice of neck ultrasound and recombinant human TSH (rhTSH). The drug h...

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...

The pathophysiology of thyroid nodules is still widely undefined even though recent data from microarray studies hint towards a distinct group of candidate genes. Furthermore, a better understanding of new mechanisms involved in thyroid growth regulation like TGF-β, BMP and wnt signalling may open new avenues for treatment. Recent data derived from animal models of thyroid carcinomas suggest an action of thyroid hormones despite the loss of TSH receptor. Upon confirmation...