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Query: UMLS:C0026764 (multiple myeloma)
 36,148 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Many hormones and some neuropeptides and neurotransmitters play a key role in regulating numerous lymphoid cell functions. In particular, somatostatin (ss), substance P (sp) and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (vip) appear to be involved in numerous regulating mechanisms of cell activities in the immune system under both physiological and pathological conditions. ss may be produced by lymphoid cells and accessories as part of the immune system. The distribution of somatostatin receptors (ssr) in the normal human thymus has prompted the hypothesis that ss, and probably other neuropeptides, may play an important role in cell homeostasis in this organ, as well as being one of the processes that regulates the maturation of T lymphocytes. The advent of molecular biology has showed a variable expression of ssr on the various T and B cell lines or lines deriving from lymphoma/ leukemia and human myeloma. Using autoradiographic studies, ssr have been predominantly found in lymphoblastic areas of lymphoma, which represent the active part of the tumour. The expression of ssR has been found in vivo and in vitro, also in pathological sites in patients with autoimmune and granulomatous diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and sarcoidosis.
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PMID:[Somatostatin receptors in immune system cells]. 1175 40

Exchange of information occurs between cells of neuroendocrine and immune systems. Neuroendocrine hormones may modulate lymphoid cell activities, including proliferation and mitogenesis, and immune cells may produce neuropeptides as well. Neuropetide Y is synthesized in B-cell leukaemia lymphoblasts, while substance P immunoreactivity has been detected in neoplastic haematological samples of different types of leukaemias. The presence of receptors for neuropeptides on different animal and human lymphoid cell lines, as well as in several types of animal and human lymphoproliferative diseases has been demonstrated. Species variability in receptor distribution has been shown as well. Receptor expression in immune cells may be regulated by changes in microenvironmental conditions, it may also be related to the activation and/ or proliferation state of cells. Vasoactive intestinal peptides receptors have been detected in myeloma cells, while somatostatin receptors have been first detected in vitro on resting lymphocytes and cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage, and later on human activated lymphocytes and on lymphoblastic leukaemia cells. Somatostatin receptors have been found in biopsies from patients with malignant lymphomas. Tumor localization in non-Hodgkin lymphomas and Hodgkin's disease can be visualized by in vivo somatostatin receptor scintigraphy, contributing to establish the diagnosis and the stage of the disease. Recently. somatostatin receptors have been in vivo and in vitro detected in human thymic tumors. Although treatment of lymphoproliferative diseases with somatostatin analogs is a little explored field, partial remission was found in patients with low-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, and a successful treatment with octreotide has been reported in patients with thymoma. Specific somatostatin receptors present in progenitors of immune cells are not expressed in the mature phenotype, while they can be detected in transformed cell lines. The possibility that this phenomenon is caused by oncogene expression cannot be ruled out. Moreover, preliminary data showed a developmental expression of somatostatin receptors in lymphoid cells, suggesting a potential role for neuropeptide receptors as differentiation markers. Although controlled studies are warranted to investigate the efficacy of the currently available analogs, somatostatinergic compounds may be of interest in the treatment of lymphoproliferative malignancies. A promising approach in refractory patients with somatostatin receptor positive malignant lymphomas may be radionuclide-targeted and cytotoxic analog therapy. These concepts increase the possibility of a wider antitumor treatment with ligands for neuroepeptide receptors than in established 'classic' neuroendocrine tumors.
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PMID:Neuroendocrine aspects of immunolymphoproliferative diseases. 1176 38

Imaging can take advantage of developments in "omics" approaches and go from routine individual biomarkers to multiple-scale biomarker profiles. Imaging structural, functional, metabolic, cellular, and molecular changes will be made possible by multimodality hybrid techniques, such as positron emission tomography-magnetic resonance imaging. Imaging should predict treatment response, look at stratification for specific treatment modalities, and look at the "omic" characterization of an individual patient or a specific tumor. This should lead to the development of "personalized" medicine. In cancer radiotherapy, patient responses should be accurately predicted. In specific cases, proton and hadrontherapy will be further enhanced by the irradiation dose delivered to the tumors. For disseminated or metastatic disease, targeted radionuclide therapy is an effective addition to the arsenal against cancer. The clinical efficacy of radiolabeled antibodies has been clearly demonstrated in lymphoma as well as that of radiolabeled peptides derived from somatostatin in the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors. Preliminary studies now show interesting results in solid tumors, too. Even if the number of objective clinical responses based on tumor shrinkage is small, targeted radionuclide therapy increases progression-free survival or overall survival in some specific cases where tumor burden is small. Avenues for further improvement are multiple and include combination with other therapeutic modalities, development of new approaches (e.g., small molecules, pretargeting, and antibody alternatives). Using alpha-emitting radionuclides is another possibility for specific diseases, such as leukemias, multiple myeloma, or brain tumor remnants.
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PMID:What can be expected from nuclear medicine tomorrow? 1877 53

In this review, we assess the current role of single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) in the imaging of skeletal metastatic disease from a miscellaneous group of malignancies, including lung, thyroid, and renal carcinomas; multiple myeloma; and neuroendocrine tumors, and consider how recent advances may enhance their effectiveness in this area. Bone scintigraphy using technetium-labeled diphosphonates has long been the mainstay of functional imaging of bony metastases, but is of limited value in myeloma and aggressive osteolytic metastases, and has the limitation of relatively poor specificity. SPECT, as a tomographic imaging technique, produces three-dimensional images of tracer distribution from multiplanar images. Its application to bone scintigrams greatly aids accurate anatomic localization and sensitivity in detection of foci of tracer uptake. SPECT can equally be applied to scintigrams using radiotracers, which are specific for particular groups of tumors, such as somatostatin analogs for neuroendocrine tumors. The advent of combined SPECT/computed tomography (CT) systems has further enhanced the accuracy of SPECT in all these malignancies. PET uses positron-emitting radiotracers and achieves a higher spatial resolution than single-photon imaging. Its high resolution and coverage of the entire body have made it a highly effective technique for the evaluation of skeletal metastatic disease, particularly when combined with CT. (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)F-FDG)-PET/CT now forms part of routine staging for many carcinomas, such as non-small-cell lung carcinomas, and may obviate the need for routine staging scintigraphy in these patients. As uptake of the most common PET radiotracer, (18)F-FDG, is dependent on the increased cellular metabolism of most tumors, it may enable earlier detection of metastatic foci than bone scintigraphy, which relies on detecting an osteoblastic response. Another significant advantage of (18)F-FDG-PET is that it can detect soft-tissue components of metastases, which is particularly important in aggressive osteolytic metastases. The effectiveness of (18)F-FDG-PET is limited in slow-growing tumor types, but (18)F-sodium fluoride, a bone radiotracer that can detect early osteoblastic changes, shows promise in this area. Bony metastases from many neuroendocrine tumors can be detected with a high degree of specificity by PET using somatostatin analogs. Other novel and often highly specific radiotracers are under evaluation, which will further enhance the diagnostic capability of PET. The true potential of PET in this group of malignancies is gradually unfolding, although studied series of patients remain generally small and much further evaluation of its role is required.
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PMID:Miscellaneous cancers (lung, thyroid, renal cancer, myeloma, and neuroendocrine tumors): role of SPECT and PET in imaging bone metastases. 1980 Dec 21

Multiple myeloma cells express somatostatin receptors, and somatostatin receptor scintigraphy with 111In-pentetreotide has been used for imaging multiple myeloma with variable success. We here present 68Ga-DOTANOC somatostatin receptor PET-CT findings in a 57-year-old man with multiple myeloma. PET-CT showed 2 expansile lytic lesions with increased 68Ga-DOTANOC. This case highlights the potential use of 68Ga-DOTANOC PET-CT as an alternative imaging modality in multiple myeloma.
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PMID:68Ga-DOTANOC somatostatin receptor PET-CT imaging in multiple myeloma. 2364 Feb 27

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive type of neuroendocrine cancer of the skin. It predominantly affects the elderly, with a predilection for the sun-exposed skin of the head and neck. Risk factors include immune-suppressing diseases, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), chronic lymphocytic leukemia and multiple myeloma, organ transplantation, and the presence of the newly-identified Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV). Diagnosis is based on pathological findings, primarily the immunohistochemical determination of cytokeratin 20 positivity. By contrast, staging relies on conventional imaging methods, such as ultrasonography, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging, and nuclear medicine techniques, such as sentinel lymph node scintigraphy, somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS), and positron emission tomography (PET)/CT with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) or alternative radiopharmaceuticals. The treatment of MCC is primarily surgical, with possible adjuvant radiation, while the use of chemotherapy appears to be an alternative therapeutic option that is used only in specific cases. The present study describes the case of a 43-year-old HIV-positive Caucasian man with MCC located on the posterior surface of the left thigh, which was identified by cytological and histological examination of tissue sampled by fine needle aspiration and biopsy performed under CT. SRS demonstrated a high uptake of 111In-diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid-octreotide at the affected site. Therefore, the lesion was surgically excised, and the patient received chemotherapy and adjuvant radiotherapy. Three months subsequent to treatment, the patient underwent a PET/CT scan with 18F-FDG that demonstrated uptake in the cervical lymph nodes and the area of the excised lesion. These findings indicated that the disease was in remission. The aim of the present study was to highlight the value and contribution of nuclear medicine in the diagnosis, staging and follow-up, using PET/CT, octreoscan and sentinel lymph node scintigraphy, of patients with MCC, as well as the therapeutic strategy of radiolabelled somatostatin analogue scintigraphy.
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PMID:Nuclear medicine techniques in Merkel cell carcinoma: A case report and review of the literature. 2662 19

Acromegaly is associated with increased growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) secretion which may support tumour development and growth. A 68-year-old woman was diagnosed with acromegaly due to typical clinical and hormonal characteristics. While contrast-enhanced MRI at diagnosis did not reveal a pituitary adenoma, a 5-mm lesion was identified on repeat scanning 13 months later. Abdominal and chest CT showed tumours of the stomach, right adrenal gland, and right lung. The CT also showed a hypodense lesion in the liver and heterogeneous echostructure of the thyroid gland with left lobe solid-cystic tumour. Somatostatin receptor scintigraphy revealed increased tracer accumulation in the right thyroid lobe. No tracer accumulation was noted at the location of the other tumours. The resected stomach, adrenal, chest, and thyroid lesions did not show GH secretion. The patient refused pituitary surgery, and her acromegaly is currently well-controlled with somatostatin analogue therapy. A CT scan 19 months later revealed a contrast-enhancing left kidney tumour that was a G1-grade clear cell carcinoma. Four years after the acromegaly diagnosis multiple myeloma were diagnosed with secondary renal amyloidosis. Genetic screening for a paraganglioma gene panel, AIP, MEN1, and CDKN1B mutations were negative. A next-generation cancer panel containing 94 cancer genes did not identify any possible unifying gene abnormality in her germline DNA. Coexistence of acromegaly and numerous other tumours suggests a common aetiology of these disorders. However, no genetic abnormality could be identified with the tests that have been performed.
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PMID:Acromegaly associated with GIST, non-small cell lung carcinoma, clear cell renal carcinoma, multiple myeloma, medulla oblongata tumour, adrenal adenoma, and follicular thyroid nodules. 3074 99


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