Understanding delays to parathyroidectomy: A mixed-methods approach.

Background: Patients from ethnic and racial minority groups with primary hyperparathyroidism may have greater time delays to curative parathyroidectomy. Contributing factors are unclear.

Methods: This was a sequential mixed-methods study.

Endocrine Patients' Views on Transoral Endoscopic Thyroidectomy via Vestibular Approach (TOETVA).

TOETVA's adoption has been slow in the Western hemisphere. Our study aimed to evaluate how endocrine patients in the United States perceive the risks and benefits of TOETVA. This was a cross-sectional study where a de novo survey was sent via email to patients seen from 2018 to 2020.

Social Determinants of Health and Quality of Life in Endocrine Surgery Patients.

Introduction: Quality of life (QoL) of endocrine surgery patients is an important patient outcome but the role of social determinants of health (SDH) on preoperative QoL is understudied.

Methods: This study used preoperative data of 233 endocrine surgery patients participating in a longitudinal QoL study to examine the influence of SDH (patient-level and environmental) on preoperative QoL. Patient-level SDH was assessed with structured survey questions and environmental SDH with the Social Vulnerability Index.

Comparing the rate and extent of malignancy in surgically excised thyroid nodules across race and ethnicity.

Background: Few studies have compared the features of thyroid cancer among races and ethnicities. We hypothesized that race and ethnicity may influence the frequency and features of thyroid malignancy in thyroid nodules.

Method: This was a retrospective chart review of patients between 2013 and 2020 who underwent thyroidectomy.

Safety of Thyroid Surgery in the Elderly: A Propensity Score Matched Cohort Study.

Background: Thyroid surgery is becoming more common in the elderly as elderly population continues to grow. We aim to evaluate the relative risk of morbidity from thyroidectomy in patients greater than 75 y of age.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed for patients who were undergoing thyroidectomy between 2001 and 2018 in a multihospital network.

Spinal metastases due to thyroid carcinoma: an analysis of 202 patients.

Background: Spinal metastases (SMs) due to thyroid cancer (TC) are associated with significantly reduced quality of life. The goal of this study is to analyze the clinical manifestations, presentation, and treatments of TC SMs, and to describe specific features of SMs associated with different TC types.

Patients And Methods: A retrospective analysis of 202 TC SM patients treated at Medstar Washington Hospital Center (37) and collected from the literature (165) was performed.

Current treatment modalities for spinal metastases secondary to thyroid carcinoma.

Background: The spine is the most common site of bone metastases due to thyroid cancer, which develop in more than 3% of patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer. Nearly half of patients with bone metastases from thyroid cancer develop vertebral metastases. Spinal metastases are associated with significantly reduced quality of life due to pain, neurological deficit, and increased mortality.

Graves' disease and thymic hyperplasia: the relationship of thymic volume to thyroid function.

Background: Thymic hyperplasia is associated with Graves' disease, particularly in young patients. The degree of thymic transformation is minimal in most but not all patients. In the latter group radiological measurements of thyroid size and their change with treatment have rarely been reported.

Promising molecular techniques for discriminating among follicular thyroid neoplasms.

To guide the extent of thyroidectomy for indeterminate follicular neoplasm (FN), clinicians have long sought ways to differentiate follicular adenoma from carcinoma pre- or intraoperatively. Several promising molecular techniques have recently appeared including loss of heterozygosity analysis and molecular profiling microarray analysis. These new tools may also prove useful in determining prognosis, thus and allow a paradigm change in current management of the thyroid nodule.

The role of interleukin 1 in growth and metastasis of human cancer xenografts.

Background: Interleukin 1 (IL-1) is a pluripotent cytokine that promotes angiogenesis, tumor growth, and metastasis in experimental models; its presence in some human cancers is associated with aggressive tumor biology. The purpose of these studies was to characterize the role of IL-1 in human cancers and determine if inhibition of IL-1 via its receptor antagonist, IL-1Ra, alters tumor growth and metastatic potential.

Methods: IL-1 mRNA or protein levels were determined in clinical tumor samples, cancer cell lines, and xenografts using quantitative reverse transcription-PCR or ELISA.

Interferon gamma-inducible protein 10 selectively inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in endothelial cells.

Background: Interferon gamma-inducible protein 10 (IP-10) has antitumor effects in various murine models. The IP-10 receptor has two distinct splice variants, CXCR3A and CXCR3B, that have paradoxical effects after ligand-receptor interaction.

Methods: To characterize the putative antiangiogenic effects of IP-10, we measured proliferation rates and apoptosis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), fibroblasts, and A375 melanoma or WIDR adenocarcinoma cell lines after exposure to the recombinant protein.

Interleukin-1beta induced vascular permeability is dependent on induction of endothelial tissue factor (TF) activity.

IL-1beta is a pleotropic cytokine that may mediate increased procoagulant activity and permeability in endothelial tissue during inflammatory conditions. The procoagulant effects of IL-1beta are mediated through induction of tissue factor (TF) but its alterations on vascular permeability are not well characterized. We found that IL-1beta induced a rapid and dose-dependent increase in TF activity in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (ECs) under routine culture conditions.

Disseminated intravascular coagulation in an ambulatory young woman.

We are reporting the case of an ambulatory young woman with a 10-year history of recurrent venous thrombosis who presented to us with diffuse intravascular coagulation (DIC). After excluding the recognized causes of DIC, we examined the possibility that her clinically quiescent ulcerative colitis might be the underlying stimulus. We documented sepsis-range endotoxemia in this patient at a time when she was afebrile and had a normal C-reactive protein level.

Alterations in tumor necrosis factor-induced endothelial cell procoagulant activity by hyperthermia.

TNF is a cytokine with potent antitumor activity in murine models and when administered clinically via regional perfusion. There is substantial evidence that this antitumor activity depends in large part on TNF's procoagulant effect on tumor neovasculature, which is mediated by induction of endothelial cell tissue factor (TF), a component of the extrinsic clotting cascade. In regional perfusion of a cancer-bearing limb or organ, TNF is always administered under hyperthermic temperatures; however, little is known about the effect of hyperthermia on TNF-mediated procoagulant activity in endothelium.

Effect of interleukin 1 receptor antagonist gene transduction on human melanoma xenografts in nude mice.

Interleukin (IL)-1 is a pleiotropic inflammatory cytokine that promotes angiogenesis and enhances tumor growth and metastases. We evaluated the effects of IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) on tumor growth and metastases in human melanoma xenografts. We selected two human melanoma lines (SMEL and PMEL) with differential (high versus low, respectively) constitutive production of IL-1 by ELISA.

Regulation of herpes simplex virus 1 replication using tumor-associated promoters.

Objective: To investigate use of transcriptional regulatory elements (promoters) for tumor-associated antigens to achieve HSV-1 replication preferentially in cells that overexpress the tumor-associated antigens.

Summary Background Data: An important advantage of replicating viruses for cancer therapy is their ability to simultaneously destroy tumor cells by replication and release progeny virion to infect and destroy adjacent cancer cells. This strategy requires regulation of the viral life cycle to obtain robust replication in neoplastic cells and minimize replication in nonneoplastic cells.

Isolation perfusion of the liver.

Thousands of patients die annually from unresectable metastatic or primary hepatic cancers confined to liver. Isolated hepatic perfusion (IHP) is a regional treatment strategy in which the vascular supply to the liver is isolated and perfused with a therapeutic regimen using an extracorporeal circuit consisting of a reservoir, heat exchanger, and oxygenator. Drug doses that would cause severe toxicities if delivered systemically can be confined to the liver by isolated hepatic perfusion, resulting in the ability to intensify treatment to the cancer-burdened region of the body.