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Pheochromocytoma is seen in between two and eight in 1,000,000, with approximately 1000 cases diagnosed in United States yearly. It mostly occurs in young or middle age adults, though it presents earlier in hereditary cases.
- About 10% of adrenal cases are bilateral (suggesting hereditary disease)
- About 10% of adrenal cases occur in children (also suggesting hereditary disease)
- About 15% are extra-adrenal (located in any orthosympathetic tissue): Of these 9% are in the abdomen, and 1% are located elsewhere. Some extra-adrenal pheochromocytomas are probably actually paragangliomas, but the distinction can only be drawn after surgical resection.
- About 11.1% of adrenal cases are malignant, but this rises to 30% for extra-adrenal cases
- About 15–20% are hereditary
- About 5% are caused by VHL disease
- About 3% recur after being resected
- About 14% of affected individuals do not have arterial hypertension (Campbell's Urology)
There is increased life-time risk of secondary cancers (relative risk 3.63), with a slightly increased mortality risk (1.21) according to a 2004 Swedish study of 481 patients.
This is a very rare tumor, since only about 1 in 35,000 to 40,000 people have VHL, of whom about 10% have endolymphatic sac tumors. Patients usually present in the 4th to 5th decades without an gender predilection. The tumor involves the endolymphatic sac, a portion of the intraosseous inner ear of the posterior petrous bone.
Myelolipomas are rare. They have been reported to be found unexpectedly at autopsy in 0.08% to 0.4% of cases ("i.e.:" somewhere between 8 per 10,000 and 4 per 1,000 autopsies). They most commonly occur in the adrenal gland, yet only comprise about 3% of all adrenal tumours. They may also occur in other sites, such as the mediastinum, the liver and the gastrointestinal tract.
There is no gender predilection, males and females are affected equally. The peak age range at diagnosis is between 40 and 79 years of age.
An endocrine gland neoplasm is a neoplasm affecting one or more glands of the endocrine system.
Examples include:
- Adrenal tumor
- Pituitary adenoma
The most common form is thyroid cancer.
Condition such as pancreatic cancer or ovarian cancer can be considered endocrine tumors, or classified under other systems.
Pinealoma is often grouped with brain tumors because of its location.
According to a Dutch source juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma occurs at a rate of 2 in 100,000 people. Most affected are children ages 5–14 years. According to the National Cancer Institute more than 80% of astrocytomas located in the cerebellum are low grade (pilocytic grade I) and often cystic; most of the remainder are diffuse grade II astrocytomas.
Tumors of the optic pathway account for 3.6-6% of pediatric brain tumors, 60% of which are juvenile pilocytic astrocytomas. Astrocytomas account for 50% of pediatric primary central nervous system tumors. About 80-85% of cerebellar astrocytomas are juvenile pilocytic astrocytomas.
Recent genetic studies of pilocytic astrocytomas show that some sporadic cases have gain in chromosome 7q34 involving the BRAF locus.
Carney triad (CT) is characterized by the coexistence of three types of neoplasms, mainly in young women, including gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumor, pulmonary chondroma, and extra-adrenal paraganglioma. The underlying genetic defect remains elusive. CT is distinct from Carney complex, and the Carney-Stratakis syndrome.
ACC, generally, carries a poor prognosis and is unlike most tumours of the adrenal cortex, which are benign (adenomas) and only occasionally cause Cushing's syndrome. Five-year disease-free survival for a complete resection of a stage I–III ACC is approximately 30%.
The most important prognostic factors are age of the patient and stage of the tumor.
Poor prognostic factors: mitotic activity, venous invasion, weight of 50g+; diameter of 6.5 cm+, Ki-67/MIB1 labeling index of 4%+, p53+.
An adrenal tumor or adrenal mass is any benign or malignant neoplasms of the adrenal gland, several of which are notable for their tendency to overproduce endocrine hormones. Adrenal cancer is the presence of malignant adrenal tumors, and includes neuroblastoma, adrenocortical carcinoma and some adrenal pheochromocytomas. Most adrenal pheochromocytomas and all adrenocortical adenomas are benign tumors, which do not metastasize or invade nearby tissues, but may cause significant health problems by unbalancing hormones.
Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC, adrenal cortical carcinoma, adrenal cortical cancer, adrenal cortex cancer, etc.) is an aggressive cancer originating in the cortex (steroid hormone-producing tissue) of the adrenal gland. Adrenocortical carcinoma is a rare tumor, with incidence of 1–2 per million population annually. Adrenocortical carcinoma has a bimodal distribution by age, with cases clustering in children under 5, and in adults 30–40 years old. Adrenocortical carcinoma is remarkable for the many hormonal syndromes which can occur in patients with steroid hormone-producing ("functional") tumors, including Cushing's syndrome, Conn syndrome, virilization, and feminization. Adrenocortical carcinoma has often invaded nearby tissues or metastasized to distant organs at the time of diagnosis, and the overall 5-year survival rate is only 20–35%. The widely used angiotensin-II-responsive steroid-producing cell line H295R was originally isolated from a tumor diagnosed as adrenocortical carcinoma.
An endolymphatic sac tumor is a very uncommon papillary epithelial neoplasm arising within the endolymphatic sac or endolymphatic duct. This tumor shows a very high association with von Hippel-Lindau syndrome (VHL).
The majority of myelolipomas are asymptomatic. Most do not produce any adrenal hormones. Most are only discovered as a result of investigation for another problem.
When myelolipomas do produce symptoms, it is usually because they have become large, and are pressing on other organs or tissues nearby. Symptoms include pain in the abdomen or , blood in the urine, a palpable lump or high blood pressure.
As they are benign tumors, myelolipomas do not spread to other body parts. Larger myelolipomas are at risk of localised tissue death and bleeding, which may cause a retroperitoneal haemorrhage.
Carney (CT), named for J Aidan Carney, is considered to be a specific type of multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN). The three classically associated tumors are a subset of gastric epithelioid leiomyosarcoma (it is now known that this subset is actually gastrointestinal stromal tumor arising from the interstitial cells of Cajal), pulmonary chondroma, and extra-adrenal paraganglioma.
The condition manifests more commonly in females. Multiple tumors in multiple organs in young patients, with occasional sibling involvement, suggested an inherited disorder, but the underlying genetic basis has not been identified.
In addition to these three classical tumors, there is an increased incidence of pheochromocytoma, esophageal leiomyoma and adrenocortical adenoma.
The original description employed the then-prevailing terminology of gastric epithelioid leiomyosarcoma. Subsequent advances in molecular biology have led to the current terminology of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). However, there is limited evidence to suggest that the gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) in Carney triad lack CD117 (c-kit) mutations (i.e., they are wild-type), and hence these GISTs may prove unresponsive to Gleevec.
Paragangliomas originate from paraganglia in chromaffin-negative glomus cells derived from the embryonic neural crest, functioning as part of the sympathetic nervous system (a branch of the autonomic nervous system). These cells normally act as special chemoreceptors located along blood vessels, particularly in the carotid bodies (at the bifurcation of the common carotid artery in the neck) and in aortic bodies (near the aortic arch).
Accordingly, paragangliomas are categorised as originating from a neural cell line in the World Health Organization classification of neuroendocrine tumors. In the categorization proposed by Wick, paragangliomas belong to group II. Given the fact that they originate from cells of the orthosympathetic system, paragangliomas are closely related to pheochromocytomas, which however are chromaffin-positive.
A adrenocortical adenoma (or adrenal cortical adenoma, or sometimes simply adrenal adenoma) is a benign tumor of the adrenal cortex.
It can present with Cushing's syndrome or primary aldosteronism. They may also secrete androgens, causing hyperandrogenism. Also, they are often diagnosed incidentally as incidentalomas.
Is a well circumscribed, yellow tumour in the adrenal cortex, which is usually 2–5 cm in diameter. The color of the tumour, as with adrenal cortex as a whole, is due to the stored lipid (mainly cholesterol), from which the cortical hormones are synthesized. These tumors are frequent incidental findings at post mortem examination, and appear to have produced no significant metabolic disorder; only a very small percentage lead to Cushing's syndrome. Nevertheless, these apparently non-functioning adenomas are most often encountered in elder obese people. There is some debate that they may really represent nodules in diffuse nodular cortical hyperplasia.
Very occasionally, a true adrenal cortical adenoma is associated with the clinical manifestations of Conn's syndrome, and can be shown to be excreting mineralocorticoids.
A paraganglioma is a rare neuroendocrine neoplasm that may develop at various body sites (including the head, neck, thorax and abdomen). Unlike other types of cancer, there is no test that determines benign from malignant tumors; long-term followup is therefore recommended for all individuals with paraganglioma. Approximately 50% of patients with recurrent disease experience distant metastasis. The five-year survival in the setting of metastatic disease is 40% to 45%.
The adrenal cortex is composed of three distinct layers of endocrine cells which produce critical steroid hormones. These include the glucocorticoids which are critical for regulation of blood sugar and the immune system, as well as response to physiological stress, the mineralcorticoid aldosterone, which regulates blood pressure and kidney function, and certain sex hormones. Both benign and malignant tumors of the adrenal cortex may produce steroid hormones, with important clinical consequences.
Pancreatic serous cystadenoma, also known as serous cystadenoma of the pancreas and serous microcystic adenoma, a benign tumour of pancreas. It is usually found in the head of the pancreas, and may be associated with von Hippel-Lindau syndrome.
In contrast to some of the other cyst-forming tumors of the pancreas (such as the intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm and the mucinous cystic neoplasm), serous cystic neoplasms are almost always entirely benign. There are some exceptions; rare case reports have described isolated malignant serous cystadenocarcinomas. In addition, serous cystic neoplasms slowly grow, and if they grow large enough they can press on adjacent organs and cause symptoms.
Primary pigmented nodular adrenocortical disease (PPNAD) was first coined in 1984 by Carney et al. it often occurs in association with Carney complex (CNC). CNC is a rare syndrome that involves the formation of abnormal tumours that cause endocrine hyperactivity.
PPNAD arises due to the enlargement of the cortex of the adrenal glands, resulting in Cushing's syndrome that is independent of the pituitary hormone ACTH.
Grade I pilocytic astrocytoma and cerebellar gliomas are not associated with recurrence after complete resection. Grade II astrocytomas and cerebellar gliomas are more likely to recur after surgical removal. Pilomyxoid astrocytomas may behave more aggressively than classic pilocytic astrocytoma.
After complete surgical removal, in cases of progressive/recurrent disease or when maximal surgical removal has been achieved, chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy will be considered by the medical team.
Regardless of location, all rhabdoid tumours are highly aggressive, have a poor prognosis, and tend to occur in children less than two years of age.
PPNAD, the endocrine manifestation that comes from Carney Complex (CNC), can be syndromic or isolated. The main cause of isolated PPNAD is a mutation of PRKAR1α, located at 17q22-24, which is the gene encoding the regulatory R1α subunit of protein kinase A. Germline heterozygous PRKAR1α inactivation mutations are present in 80% of CNC patients affected by Cushing's syndrome. There are over 117 mutations of the PRKAR1α gene that can cause CNC, with many of these mutations producing premature stop codons, thus resulting in the complete loss of PRKAR1α protein. CNC patients have also been discovered with an unusually shortened PRKAR1α protein, detected in tumours and leukocytes, following a splice-site mutation, which causes exon-6 skipping. Therefore, both haploinsufficiency and the complete loss of PRKAR1α can lead to the increased PKA activity observed in PPNAD patients, due to the disruption of the cAMP signalling pathway.
Sahut-Barnola et al. used a mouse model to cre-lox knockout the Prkar1a gene specifically from cells of the adrenal cortex and observed that the mice subsequently developed Cushing syndrome that is independent of the pituitary. They also observed that the mutation caused increased PKA activity.
The R1α loss caused the adult adrenal gland became hyperactive and hyperplastic on both sides, as seemingly the foetal adrenal cells within it were not maintained and thus expanded. This established tumoral growths. This mouse KO model phenocopies what happens in human cases of PPNAD.
Inactivation of PDE11A4, located at 2q31-5, has also been identified in PPNAD patients without PRKAR1α mutations. PDE11A4 is the gene encoding phosphodiesterase 11A4, another participant of the cAMP signalling pathway.
Age and gender have an effect on the incidence of these lesions; they are more prevalent in women than men (though still common in both genders), and they appear more frequently with age. Due to the standard of medical care and screening in developed countries, it is increasingly rare for primary hyperparathyroidism to present with accompanying bone disease. This is not the case in less developed nations, however, and the two conditions are more often seen together.
Most malignant vascular tumors are considered sarcomas, a major histological group of tumors, arising from transformed cells of mesenchymal origin.
- Hemangiosarcoma
- Hemangiopericytoma
- Kaposi's Sarcoma
- Hemangioblastoma
- Lymphangiosarcoma
Vascular tissue neoplasms, like neoplasms of all tissues, are classified to benign and malignant ones, according to their biological behavior.