Prolactinomas, Cushing's disease and acromegaly: debating the role of medical therapy for secretory pituitary adenomas

Pituitary adenomas are associated with a variety of clinical manifestations resulting from excessive hormone secretion and tumor mass effects, and require a multidisciplinary management approach. This article discusses the treatment modalities for the management of patients with a prolactinoma, Cushing's disease and acromegaly, and summarizes the options for medical therapy in these patients

Cell Adhesion Mechanisms and Stress Relaxation in the Mechanics of Tumours

Tumour cells usually live in an environment formed by other host cells, extra-cellular matrix and extra-cellular liquid. Cells duplicate, reorganise and deform while binding each other due to adhesion molecules exerting forces of measurable strength. In this paper a macroscopic mechanical model of solid tumour is investigated which takes such adhesion mechanisms into account. The extracellular matrix is treated as an elastic compressible material, while, in order to define the relationship between stress and strain for the cellular constituents, the deformation gradient is decomposed in a multiplicative way distinguishing the contribution due to growth, to cell rearrangement and to elastic deformation. On the basis of experimental results at a cellular level, it is proposed that at a macroscopic level there exists a yield condition separating the elastic and dissipative regimes. Previously proposed models are obtained as limit cases, e.g. fluid-like models are obtained in the limit of fast cell reorganisation and negligible yield stress. A numerical test case shows that the model is able to account for several complex interactions: how tumour growth can be influenced by stress, how and where it can generate cell reorganisation to release the stress level, how it can lead to capsule formation and compression of the surrounding tissu

Global carbon pricing and the “Common But Differentiated Responsibilities”: the case of China

International audienceThis paper analyzes whether using carbon pricing as the major mitigation policy instrument is compatible with the implementation of the “common but differentiated responsibility” principle in a global climate agreement. We focus more specifically on China, a key player in climate negotiations. This is done by adopting the Imaclim-R model to assess the economic effect of carbon pricing on the Chinese economy in different climate architectures which, despite aiming at the same stabilization target, differ in terms of the temporal profile of emission reductions and the regional distribution of efforts (different quota allocation schemes). Model outcomes prove that neither temporal nor regional flexibilities provides a satisfactory answer since the Chinese economy remains significantly hurt at certain time periods. This suggests the recourse to complementary measures to carbon pricing in order to help smoothing the necessary shift toward a low-carbon society. This means in particular that, to build a climate policy architecture that could be compatible with the “common but differentiated responsibility” principle, climate negotiations must go beyond global top-down systems relying on cap-and-trade to include bottom-up measures likely to complement the carbon price and make carbon mitigation acceptable in countries like China. © 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrech