A study of recurrence and death from papillary thyroid cancer with 27 years of median follow-up.

Background: Although recurrence and death can occur in patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) several years after being diagnosed, the necessary duration of follow-up for these patients remains unclear.

Methods: This was a single-institution, retrospective review of 269 patients with PTC. Cox proportional hazards model and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to identify risk factors for recurrence and death.

Familial variation in episode frequency in bipolar affective disorder.

Objective: Bipolar affective disorder is a familial illness characterized by recurrent episodes of mania and depression, but little is known about the familial nature of episode recurrence or its associated clinical features. The authors analyzed the recurrence frequency of affective episodes (episode frequency), along with associated clinical and demographic variables, in families with at least three members with a major affective disorder.

Method: Members of 86 families ascertained through probands with bipolar affective disorder who had two or more first-degree relatives with a major affective disorder were interviewed by psychiatrists and assigned an all-sources diagnosis.

Viral mediated gene therapy for the management of metastatic thyroid carcinoma.

Thyroid cancers are of special interest in gene therapy, since it is possible to direct gene expression specifically to the thyroid derived cells by using promoters with limited expression, and secondly, because destruction of the normal tissue by introduction of a toxic gene would have no important adverse effect. A variety of methods for gene delivery are available. Adenovirus is a well studied and widely used vector and is useful for targeting genes because it infects many cell types, including differentiated thyroid cancer and medullary thyroid cancer cells.

CTLA-4 AT-repeat polymorphism reduces the inhibitory function of CTLA-4 in Graves' disease.

Graves' disease (GD) is thought to be an autoimmune disease with a strong genetic component. Candidate genes include human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II genes and CTLA-4. The CTLA-4 gene has a variable length AT-repeat polymorphism in the 3'-untranslated region.

Adenovirus-mediated tumor-specific combined gene therapy using Herpes simplex virus thymidine/ganciclovir system and murine interleukin-12 induces effective antitumor activity against medullary thyroid carcinoma.

The present treatment of advanced and metastatic medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is unsatisfactory. Tissue-specific cancer gene therapy is a novel alternative approach. We developed a recombinant adenovirus expressing Herpes simplex type 1 thymidine kinase (HSVtk) driven by a modified CALC-I promoter TCP (AdTCPtk).

Painful Hashimoto's thyroiditis as an indication for thyroidectomy: clinical characteristics and outcome in seven patients.

Patients with chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, or Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), usually present with goiter, hypothyroidism, or both. Thyroid pain and tenderness are rare and suggest an alternative diagnosis of subacute granulomatous thyroiditis or other forms of thyroiditis. We report seven patients with painful HT who had temporary or no relief from L-thyroxine replacement or steroid treatment and required surgical intervention for unremitting pain.

Gene therapy of a rat follicular thyroid carcinoma model with adenoviral vectors transducing murine interleukin-12.

Interleukin-12 (IL12) is a heterodimeric cytokine that plays an important role in the development of cellular immunity. We previously reported the antitumor activity of mouse IL12 (mIL12) transduced by adenovirus in a medullary thyroid carcinoma model. In this study, a rat thyroid follicular cancer cell line (RTC-R2) was employed to develop tumors after sc injection in Wistar rats.

A tandemly repeated thyroglobulin core promoter has potential to enhance efficacy for tissue-specific gene therapy for thyroid carcinomas.

Recombinant adenoviruses, carrying herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSVtk) genes, were developed to evaluate the possibility of tissue-specific gene therapy for thyroid carcinomas. The HSVtk gene was driven by a minimal thyroglobulin (TG) promoter (AdTGtk) and a tandemly repeated minimal TG promoter (Ad2 x TGtk) to obtain thyroid-specific cell killing ability. The transduction of HSVtk genes by infection with Ad2 x TGtk followed by ganciclovir (GCV) treatment showed more powerful cytotoxicity for TG-producing FRTL5 cells, a rat normal thyroid cell line, and FTC-133 cells, a human follicular thyroid carcinoma cell line, than when infected with AdTGtk in vitro.

Cell-specific viral gene therapy of a Hurthle cell tumor.

We evaluated the effectiveness of a replication-defective adenovirus-transducing thymidine kinase (TK) gene under the control of the rat Tg (rTg) promoter (AdrTgtk) in therapy of a human Hurthle cancer (XTC-1 cell) in vitro and in vivo. The ganciclovir (GCV) sensitivity of infected XTC-1 cells was assessed in vitro by H(3)-thymidine incorporation assay and Trypan-blue exclusion, and by an in vivo tumor development assay. Proliferation was strongly inhibited by adding GCV into the culture medium of infected cells, but not uninfected cells, proving cell infection and expression of TK in the XTC-1 cells.

Subclinical Hypothyroidism and Euthyroid Sick Syndrome in Patients with Moderate-to-Severe Congestive Heart Failure.

Thyroid function tests were performed on baseline plasma that had been taken from 34 patients with NYHA Class II or Class III congestive heart failure (CHF). All patients were negative for thyroid disease on history and physical examination and none was taking medication known to alter thyroid metabolism. Analysis of thyroid function revealed abnormalities in 16 of 31 patients.