Endocrinology: overview and clinical applications

Thyroid Hormone in Carcinoma

Thyroid Hormones

The author of this report is asked to review an article and the topic chosen from the acceptable list of topics regards the role and involvement of thyroid hormones in certain disorders. The particular article reviewed for this report focused on the activation of tumor cell proliferation by secretions from the thyroid gland in mice. The specific cancer involved was follicular thyroid carcinoma. Per the requirement of the assignment, the article in question is less than two to three years old. Indeed, it was published last year.

The article starts off by noting that thyroid cancer variants are by far the most common malignancy of the endocrine system in humans. The article notes that the main goal of the research behind the report had the goal of the parallels and similar causes of follicular thyroid carcinoma and thyroid carcinogenesis in general. To prove their point, they completed neutered thyroid production in some mice. The article notes that cell proliferation and apoptosis are two major processes that affect tumor growth in people with thyroid-related cancers (Lu, Zhu, Willingham & Cheng, 2012).

The study found, and stated in the discussion section, that the altered mice mentioned in the prior paragraph follow the same patterns and results found in humans with similar thyroid issues. The study's discussion notes that the use of mice allows them to toy and experiment in an environment that does not affect humans as they are not the study subjects in this study, and ones like it, but it is still possible to draw conclusions and findings that can likely (if not certainly) be parlayed to research on similar results, outcomes and treatment methods in humans. This is not usually the case and monkeys and other animals more closely similar to humans are usualy much more commonly used so as to ensure proper results (Lu, Zhu, Willingham & Cheng, 2012).

However, there were some results and manifestations in the report that could not be explained by the reseachers. For example, there was a certain gene, which they referred to as the Pten gene, that was present in many of the mice. The researchers honestly stated that it was not clear how the expression of this gene is (or is not) regulated by the thyroid hormone. However, what was clear was that the Pten gene was much more prevalent in mice "patients" that had their thyroid function inhibited and reduced. One theory posed, but not proven by this research, was that the involvement of one of the receptors involved in the Pten gene process probably had something to do with the differences (Lu, Zhu, Willingham & Cheng, 2012).