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Although medication for Graves' hyperthyroidism can be withdrawn without adverse effects for the patient, the data regarding the optimal duration of therapy are still unsatisfactory. This Viewpoint discusses how long treatment for Graves' disease should be continued and how withdrawal of antithyroid drugs might affect remission and relapse.
Neuroendocrine responses differ markedly in chronic critical illness compared with acute illness, and the chronic response may be harmful. Hyperglycemia is a major risk factor, and control of blood glucose is important. Because hypothalamic–pituitary axes interact during chronic illness, validating new therapies aimed at correcting multiple endocrine pathways seems warranted.
Administration of testosterone to men markedly reduces sperm counts and is a very efficient and well tolerated method of contraception. Combinations with progestogens or with gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonists are even more effective and suggest that hormonal contraception in men is feasible and may be as effective as the currently used methods.
Thyroid cancer is the commonest endocrine malignancy, and drugs that target protein kinases offer a new approach in combating this and other malignancies. This review describes the various kinase targets in thyroid cancers, and details the inhibitors of the kinases RET and BRAF that are now in clinical trials.
