Although many tumours of head and neck have been successfully embolized, the number of publications on the application of selective embolization of thyroid arteries (SETA) is limited. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the safety, efficacy and possible indications and contraindications for preresective or palliative SETA in thyroid cancer. The study group comprised 20 patients with thyroid tumours: 7 cases of advanced inoperable anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) and 13 cases of differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). All the patients underwent SETA of the superior and/or inferior thyroid arteries. After SETA, selective angiographies of thyroid arteries were performed to ensure that the targeted arteries had been completely occluded. In all the cases, SETA decreased the blood flow through the thyroid. Preresective SETA limited bleeding during surgery and decreased operating time. We observed a massive increase of thyroglobulin (Tg) concentrations in cases of DTC that started 36-48 h after SETA and did not occur in cases of ATC. Although SETA had no influence on the mortality of ATC patients, they reported improvements in swallowing, breathing and decrease of the pain. Concluding, SETA is minimally invasive and safe method limiting blood flow through thyroid tumours. In DTC patients, SETA causes ischaemic necrosis of the gland which results in important increases in serum concentrations of Tg. Therefore, thyroidectomy should be performed during the first 36 h after preresective embolization. Moreover, SETA may become an attractive option of palliative treatment for ATC patients with intractable bleeding, pain or signs of tracheal and oesophageal compression.

Cyclin E plays a pivotal role in the regulation of G1-S transition and relates to malignant transformation of the cells. However, the clinical significance of cyclin E expression in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) remains unknown. We examined by immunohistochemistry the expression of cyclin E in 41 resected PTCs in pathologic stages from pT1a to pT4 and analyzed its relation to clinicohistopathologic factors. The positive staining was divided into 3 grades: no expression if less than 10%, expression if 11-50% and overexpression if more than 50% of the nuclei of tumor cells were stained positively. Cylin E expressions were observed in 75.6% of analyzed PTCs but only 60% of papillary microcarcinomas (PMCs) were immunopositive for cyclin E expression. However, cyclin E staining was observed in 90.4% of PTCs in a group with TNM higher than pT1a. Key words: cyclin E; papillary thyroid carcinoma; papillary thyroid microcarcinomaSeveral clinical and histopathologic factors have been shown to be important prognostic factors for survival in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). These include patient age, patient gender, tumor size, extrathyroidal extension and the presence of distant metastases. 1,2 However, there is a clinical need for a prognostic marker for thyroid papillary cancer, especially considering increasing number of diagnosed papillary thyroid microcarcinomas. 3 Papillary microcarcinomas (PMCs) of the thyroid are defined as small papillary carcinomas measuring less than 1 cm in maximum dimension. The biology of these tumors is not fully understood because, although lymph node metastases from PMCs are very uncommon on rare occasions, a PMC behaves aggressively and metastasizes early, presenting with clinically evident lymph node metastases. These tumors then result in significant morbidity and mortality. 4 At present, traditional histopathologic assessment cannot distinguish between the typical PMC, which almost always remains quiescent, and the unusual PMC, which has the potential to behave aggressively.The last decade has seen an enormous expansion in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms governing cell cycle regulation. Altered expression of cell cycle regulators and the subsequent deregulation of the cell cycle may be important steps in carcinogenesis and are the most consistently found events in human malignancies, including thyroid cancer. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Among the G1 cyclins, cyclin D1 and cyclin E are key regulators during the G1/S cell cycle transition, and perhaps the most important checkpoint in the mammalian cell cycle. 12 Amplification of the cyclin E gene locus was observed in several cancers, including breast, 13-16 thyroid, 8,11 colorectal, 17,18 laryngeal 19 and lung cancers. 20 -22 Furthermore, cyclin E is also altered in leukemias and lymphomas. [23][24][25] Moreover, in several studies, the cyclin E expression was associated with bad prognosis. 14 -16,19 -21,26 In 1994, Keyomarsi et al. 14 proposed cyclin E as a prognostic marker for breast cancer and in the...

Abstract. Angiogenesis is a process of new blood vessel development from pre-existing vasculature. It is a crucial process in normal physiology, as well as in several pathological conditions. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) represents a family of specific endothelial cell mitogens, involved in normal angiogenesis and in tumour development. The aim of the present study was to estimate the influence of L-thyroxine (L-T 4 ) administration on poorplatelet plasma (P-PP) VEGF concentrations in patients with induced short-term hypothyroidism, monitored for differentiated thyroid carcinoma. In the present study, P-PP concentrations of VEGF, thyroglobulin, thyrotropin and free thyroid hormones were investigated in a population of 24 hypothyroid patients, who were withdrawn from L-T 4 treatment for 5 weeks and studied before and after 2 months of L-T 4 therapy. Only healthy female patients with no evidence of metastasis in whole body scintigraphy were included in the study. They were then compared with 20 healthy control subjects, matched for age, sex and body mass index (BMI). The patients had significantly lower plasma VEGF concentrations before treatment with L-T 4 than after administration of that hormone. There was no significant difference in plasma VEGF levels, either between the patients treated with L-T 4 , and the controls, or between the patients untreated with L-T 4 , and the controls. Even short-time changes in thyrometabolic profile exert an important influence on P-PP VEGF concentrations, even if there is no thyroid tissue.

Background: in recent years, an increasing interest in the application of selective embolization of thyroid arteries (SETA) in the treatment of thyroid diseases is observed. In the present report, we analyse the value, safety and possible indications for preresective SETA in cases of large toxic goitres.