Endocrine Cancer

Overview

WomanEndocrine Our multidisciplinary disease group includes endocrine surgeons, endocrinologists, head and neck (ENT) surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, a dedicated endocrine diagnostic radiology and pathology group, specialized advanced practice providers, nurses, social workers, nutritionists, genetic counselors and others.

We offer personalized therapies based on biopsies or small tissue samples as well as molecular testing, which means that treatments are tailored to the specific type of cancer.

Our surgeons have performed thousands of neck and abdominal endocrine-specific surgical procedures, ranging from minimally invasive to complex. Novel surgical techniques are employed, including parathyroid and thyroid surgery under local anesthesia and minimally invasive adrenal surgery through the back. Our endocrinologists are sub-specialized, focusing their entire clinical practice in treating all forms of endocrine neoplasia disease and working alongside surgeons to ensure optimal treatment pre-operatively, during surgery, and post-operatively.

We strive for lower complication rates, shorter hospital stays, lower overall costs, less likelihood of cancer recurrence and fewer repeat operations as compared to national published data.

Challenging cases are discussed in a multidisciplinary fashion at a weekly tumor board attended by experts from surgery, endocrinology, pathology, radiology and oncology.

We also offer patient support services to assist patients in maintaining quality of life throughout treatment and recovery. Both adult and pediatric patients have convenient and rapid access to appointments in both Raleigh and Durham Duke Cancer Center locations.

Treatment

As a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, our thyroid cancer group is recognized for exploring new treatment opportunities. We work with the American Thyroid Association, American Association of Endocrine Surgeons and National Comprehensive Center Network to help set the national standards for best practice treatment guidelines. We were also one of the first institutions to work with the Collaborative Endocrine Surgery Quality Improvement Program to improve quality in endocrine surgery.

Our disease group specializes in:

Diseases of the Thyroid

Thyroid cancer
Thyroid nodule/mass
Thyroid goiter
Toxic multinodular goiter
Toxic adenoma
Graves’ disease/Hyperthyroidism

LEARN MORE about our thyroid disease testing and treatments

Parathyroid Disorders

Hyperparathyroidism (primary, secondary, tertiary, recurrent)
Parathyroid cancer
Parathyroid adenoma
Hypercalcemia

LEARN MORE about our testing and treatments for parathyroid disorders, including minimally invasive parathyroidectomy.

Adrenal Gland Disorders

Adrenal nodule/mass (functional or not)
Adrenal cancer
Pheochromoocytoma
Cushing’s Syndrome
Conn’s Syndrome
Pheochromocytoma or hyperaldosteronism
Primary aldosteronism

LEARN MORE about our testing and treatments for adrenal gland disorders, including retroperitoneal adrenalectomy.

Research

Our research encompasses the different diseases of the thyroid, parathyroid, pancreas, and adrenal glands.

Our Focus:

Health Services Research
Patient-Reported Outcomes
Translational Research: The endocrine neoplasia group has an encompassing interest in cross-disciplinary translational research, including parathyroid diseases (Koh Laboratory), and thyroid cancer (Counter Laboratory; Stapleton Laboratory)
Cancer Genetics: The endocrine neoplasia group has been working using genomic data of thyroid cancer, to develop a genetic signature that predicts progression. (Cheng Laboratory)
Clinical Trials

Research Programs and Centers:

:: Duke Endocrine Neoplasia Research Group :: DCRI :: Duke SCORES

Clinical Trials

We are among the first to enroll patients in clinical studies investigating small-molecule therapies for locally advanced and metastatic thyroid cancer. Our expanding portfolio of clinical trials and growing tissue bank opens our patients’ access to experimental uses of approved drugs and newer therapies, including selumetinib, vandetanib (Caprelsa), cabozantinib (Cometriq) and sorafenib (Nexavar).

SEARCH OUR CLINICAL TRIALS

Contact Jessica Pennell, BSN, RN, CCRC, Clinical Research Nurse Coordinator, for questions and more information about clinical trials: via email or call 919.681.1883.