Eisenhofer and colleagues retrospectively analysed 18 catecholamine-related plasma and urinary biomarkers from patients with and without hereditary phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGLs). PPGLs had distinct phenotypes among different subgroups of patients – those with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 and neurofibromatosis type 1 tumours versus those with von Hippel-Lindau and succinate dehydrogenase gene mutations. The former tumours had higher concentrations of adrenaline and were found to have higher catecholamine content, but secreted the hormone at lower rates than tumours with less adrenaline. Eisenhofer and colleagues reported that the differences may be due to the origins of the tumour, either from immature noradrenergic or dopaminergic chromaffin progenitor cells or from highly differentiated adrenergic chromaffin cells. Eisenhofer et al. (2011) Endocrine-Related Cancer 18 97–111.

Read the full article at DOI: 10.1677/ERC-10-0211.