Pregnancy-related hormonal changes and thyroid growth: do they have an impact on the higher incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer in women?

Purpose Of Review: To analyze whether pregnancy could play a role in the higher prevalence of differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) in women. Estrogens strongly modify thyroid economy by increasing iodine clearance, thyroid hormone requirement and production. Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) contributes to the increased thyroid hormone synthesis.

Reproductive life and differentiated thyroid carcinoma in women: reciprocal influences on their respective outcome.

Purpose Of Review: To analyze the reciprocal influences between female reproductive life and DTC management.

Recent Findings: Data on pregnancy outcome in DTC patients indicate that after conceiving, these women may need an increased L-T4 dose to maintain suppressed serum TSH levels. Nevertheless, this does not determine major harm in terms of pregnancy outcome.

CDK4 phosphorylation status and rational use for combining CDK4/6 and BRAF/MEK inhibition in advanced thyroid carcinomas.

Background: CDK4/6 inhibitors (CDK4/6i) have been established as standard treatment against advanced Estrogen Receptor-positive breast cancers. These drugs are being tested against several cancers, including in combinations with other therapies. We identified the T172-phosphorylation of CDK4 as the step determining its activity, retinoblastoma protein (RB) inactivation, cell cycle commitment and sensitivity to CDK4/6i.

Forecasting consumer confidence through semantic network analysis of online news.

This research studies the impact of online news on social and economic consumer perceptions through semantic network analysis. Using over 1.8 million online articles on Italian media covering four years, we calculate the semantic importance of specific economic-related keywords to see if words appearing in the articles could anticipate consumers' judgments about the economic situation and the Consumer Confidence Index.

Integrating Sparse Learning-Based Feature Detectors into Simultaneous Localization and Mapping-A Benchmark Study.

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is one of the cornerstones of autonomous navigation systems in robotics and the automotive industry. Visual SLAM (V-SLAM), which relies on image features, such as keypoints and descriptors to estimate the pose transformation between consecutive frames, is a highly efficient and effective approach for gathering environmental information. With the rise of representation learning, feature detectors based on deep neural networks (DNNs) have emerged as an alternative to handcrafted solutions.

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: advances in molecular profiling and targeted therapy.

Purpose Of Review: Anaplastic thyroid carcinomas (ATCs) are rare cancers with a globally very poor prognosis, because of their immensely aggressive behaviour, resulting in predominantly advanced stage of disease at diagnosis. Response to available therapies is still disappointing. Aim of the present review is to illustrate the diverse new strategies under investigation, to improve the poor outcome of these patients.

Data-Driven Fault Diagnosis Techniques: Non-Linear Directional Residual vs. Machine-Learning-Based Methods.

Linear dependence of variables is a commonly used assumption in most diagnostic systems for which many robust methodologies have been developed over the years. In case the system nonlinearities are relevant, fault diagnosis methods, relying on the assumption of linearity, might potentially provide unsatisfactory results in terms of false alarms and missed detections. In recent years, many authors have proposed machine learning (ML) techniques to improve fault diagnosis performance to mitigate this problem.

Crowdsourcing digital health measures to predict Parkinson's disease severity: the Parkinson's Disease Digital Biomarker DREAM Challenge.

Consumer wearables and sensors are a rich source of data about patients' daily disease and symptom burden, particularly in the case of movement disorders like Parkinson's disease (PD). However, interpreting these complex data into so-called digital biomarkers requires complicated analytical approaches, and validating these biomarkers requires sufficient data and unbiased evaluation methods. Here we describe the use of crowdsourcing to specifically evaluate and benchmark features derived from accelerometer and gyroscope data in two different datasets to predict the presence of PD and severity of three PD symptoms: tremor, dyskinesia, and bradykinesia.

A Comprehensive Case Study of Data-Driven Methods for Robust Aircraft Sensor Fault Isolation.

Recent catastrophic events in aviation have shown that current fault diagnosis schemes may not be enough to ensure a reliable and prompt sensor fault diagnosis. This paper describes a comparative analysis of consolidated data-driven sensor Fault Isolation (FI) and Fault Estimation (FE) techniques using flight data. Linear regression models, identified from data, are derived to build primary and transformed residuals.

Limb and trunk accelerometer data collected with wearable sensors from subjects with Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms. Dyskinesia and motor fluctuations are complications of PD medications. An objective measure of on/off time with/without dyskinesia has been sought for some time because it would facilitate the titration of medications.

Accelerometer data collected with a minimum set of wearable sensors from subjects with Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with motor and non-motor symptoms. Current treatments primarily focus on managing motor symptom severity such as tremor, bradykinesia, and rigidity. However, as the disease progresses, treatment side-effects can emerge such as on/off periods and dyskinesia.

Multikinase inhibitors for the treatment of radioiodine refractory thyroid cancer: what have we learned from the 'real-world' experience?

Purpose Of Review: Several molecularly targeted drugs for treating radioiodine resistant differentiated thyroid carcinomas (RAIR-DTC) have been identified. Among these, sorafenib and lenvatinib have been approved for clinical use in many countries. The present review will analyze efficacy and safety 'real-world' data (RWD) emerging after their commercialization.

Calcitonin as a biomarker of C cell disease: recent achievements and current challenges.

The neoplastic proliferation of parafollicular thyroid cells (C cells) may occur as either medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) or C cell hyperplasia (CCH) and is generically defined C cell disease. Since Calcitonin (CT) expression is fully maintained in neoplastic C cells, this hormone represents a sensitive marker for neoplasia of C cell derivation such as CCH and MTC. Serum CT levels display a high prognostic value and accurate estimation of tumor burden, allowing early detection of persistence/relapse and representing a reliable marker of response to treatment.

Novel therapeutic options for radioiodine-refractory thyroid cancer: redifferentiation and beyond.

Purpose Of Review: Radioiodine-refractory thyroid cancers represent the main cause of thyroid cancer-related death. At present, targeted therapies with multikinase inhibitors represent a unique therapeutic tool, though they have limited benefit on patient survival and severe drug-associated adverse events. This review summarizes current treatment strategies for radioiodine-refractory thyroid cancer and focuses on novel approaches to redifferentiate thyroid cancer cells to restore responsiveness to radioiodine administration.

Temporal Changes in Thyroid Nodule Volume: Lack of Effect on Paranodular Thyroid Tissue Volume.

Background: The term "nodular goiter" has long been used to refer to a nodular thyroid gland, based on the assumption that nodule growth may be associated with hyperplasia of the surrounding non-nodular tissue. The aim of this prospective, multicenter, observational study was to determine whether nodule growth is accompanied by growth in the non-nodular tissue.

Methods: Eight Italian thyroid-disease referral centers enrolled 992 consecutive patients with one to four benign nodules.

HASHIMOTO THYROIDITIS AND VESTIBULAR DYSFUNCTION.

Objective: The aim of this review was to analyze the existing literature concerning the relationship between Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) and vestibular dysfunction.

Methods: We used electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library) to search and collect all published articles about the association between HT and vestibular disorders.

Results: Several observational and retrospective studies have postulated a relationship between thyroid autoimmunity and vestibular disorders.

Recent machine learning advancements in sensor-based mobility analysis: Deep learning for Parkinson's disease assessment.

The development of wearable sensors has opened the door for long-term assessment of movement disorders. However, there is still a need for developing methods suitable to monitor motor symptoms in and outside the clinic. The purpose of this paper was to investigate deep learning as a method for this monitoring.

Multifocality in Sporadic Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma: An International Multicenter Study.

Background: Current surgical standard of care in sporadic medullary thyroid carcinoma (sMTC) consists of a minimum of total thyroidectomy with central neck dissection. Some have suggested thyroid lobectomy with isthmusectomy and central neck dissection for patients with sMTC, given their lower frequency of bilateral disease, although this topic has not been thoroughly studied. This study assessed the prevalence of multifocality in sMTC via a large international multi-institutional retrospective review to quantify this prevalence, including the impact of geography, to assess more accurately the risks associated with alternative surgical approaches.

Risk Stratification of Neck Lesions Detected Sonographically During the Follow-Up of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer.

Context: The European Thyroid Association (ETA) has classified posttreatment cervical ultrasound findings in thyroid cancer patients based on their association with disease persistence/recurrence.

Objective: The objective of the study was to assess this classification's ability to predict the growth and persistence of such lesions during active posttreatment surveillance of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC).

Design: This was a retrospective, observational study.

Role of corticosteroids in prostate cancer progression: implications for treatment strategy in metastatic castration-resistant patients.

Corticosteroid agents (CA) are widely used in the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) either as concomitant treatment with active agents such as docetaxel, cabazitaxel and abiraterone or in a palliative setting, predominantly due to their anti-inflammatory activity. However, the chronic use of CA has numerous side effects, especially in case of steroid-induced adrenal insufficiency. Furthermore, the latest clinical and preclinical data demonstrate that CA themselves are likely to promote tumour progression in certain populations of patients with mCRPC.

Emerging strategies for managing differentiated thyroid cancers refractory to radioiodine.

Efficient treatment of radio refractory thyroid cancer is still a major challenge. The recent identification of genetic and epigenetic alterations present in almost all differentiated tumors has revealed novel molecular targets, which can hopefully be exploited to create new treatments for these tumors. This review looks briefly at some of the innovative strategies currently being investigated for the treatment the radioiodine-resistant thyroid cancers.

BRAF V600E and risk stratification of thyroid microcarcinoma: a multicenter pathological and clinical study.

Studies from single institutions have analyzed BRAF in papillary microcarcinomas, sometimes with contradictory results. Most of them have provided limited integration of histological and clinical data. To obtain a comprehensive picture of BRAF V600E-mutated microcarcinomas and to evaluate the role of BRAF testing in risk stratification we performed a retrospective multicenter analysis integrating microscopical, pathological, and clinical information.

A NOVEL DOUBLE MUTATION VAL648ILE AND VAL804LEU OF RET PROTO-ONCOGENE IN MULTIPLE ENDOCRINE NEOPLASIA TYPE 2.

Objective: We report the case of a female patient with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A (MEN2A) who was found to have a double mutation in the RET (rearranged during transfection) proto-oncogene.

Methods: RET mutational analysis was performed by Sanger DNA sequencing.

Results: The proband was a compound heterozygote for the RET germline mutations Val648Ile and Val804Leu on exons 11 and 14, respectively.