Research in thyroid awarded by SPEDM

A team from the Cancer Signaling and Metabolism group was recently awarded the "Prof. E. Limbert of the Portuguese Society of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism (SPEDM) / Genzyme in thyroid pathology" fellowship. This prize, worth five thousand euros, aims to contribute to the promotion of scientific research and dissemination activities in the field of thyroid pathology and to the progress of the Medical Sciences in Portugal in the field of thyroidology.

In the award-winning paper, i3S researchers were keen to understand the molecular mechanisms that make certain thyroid carcinomas resistant to radioactive iodine therapy. The final objective, explained Catarina Tavares, who was part of the team, "is to contribute to the development of strategies that make them sensitive to therapy".

The i3S team, made up of Catarina Tavares, Paula Soares, Rui Batista and Sule Canberk, believes that this award represents an opportunity to invest more in this line of research and to understand why certain well-differentiated carcinomas acquire this resistance to a therapeutic weapon that is very effective for the treatment of most of these neoplasms.

The treatment of well differentiated thyroid carcinoma, explains Catarina Tavares, "is based almost exclusively on surgery followed by treatment with radioactive iodine for the ablation of possible tumor remnants and metastases. But for the treatment with radioactive iodine to be effective, the expression and function of the sodium iodine co-transporter (NIS) must be preserved«. However, in some cases of well-differentiated thyroid carcinomas, it is clear that «there is loss of NIS expression, which contributes to the fact that carcinomas are resistant to radioactive iodine therapy, significantly increasing patient morbidity and mortality".

According to the researcher, "the molecular mechanisms underlying the loss of NIS expression / functionality are not well understood, but it is known that the genetic context of the tumor is of great importance and that the presence of certain mutations diminishes its expression".