[Thyroid function and cancer].
Despite extensive epidemiological and biochemical studies, the effects of a thyroid dysfunction on the incidence and progress of human cancer have been, for many years, a controversial subject. Endocrine manipulations on laboratory animals clearly demonstrate the influence of thyroid hormones on the induction and growth of several types of experimental tumors: lymphomas, mammary tumors, primary or transplanted hepatomas. In vitro, triiodothyronine also plays an early and critical role in the neoplastic transformation of cultured cells by X-rays, chemical carcinogens and RNA- and DNA-viruses. At the molecular level, the effects of thyroid hormones on the alterations of gene expression accompanying neoplasms remain unknown. Yet, the presence of nuclear triiodothyronine receptors in experimental and human tumors and the recent discovery, by several authors, that the cellular counterpart of a viral oncogene (v-erb A) encodes a thyroid hormone receptor, suggest: either a direct influence of the hormone on the initiation and/or the progress of these tumors; or an indirect effect, via the modulation of another metabolic regulator, for example a polypeptide growth factor (Epidermal Growth Factor, Transforming Growth Factor).
Lemaire
M
M
Service de Radiothérapie, Hôpital de Bavière, Université de Liège, Belgique.
Baugnet-Mahieu
L
L
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology*; D051381:Rats; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000502:physiology*
Fonction thyroïdienne et cancer.