Year Book of Endocrinology^® 2012

Edited by Matthias Schott, MD, PhD, associate professor and deputy director of the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology, and Rheumatology at the University Hospital of Duesseldorf in Germany, and seven other associate editors, the Year Book of Endocrinology 2012 includes the breakthrough developments in endocrinology selected from a crop of journals worldwide and consists of eight sections: Diabetes, Lipoproteins and Atherosclerosis, Obesity, Thyroid, Calcium and Bone Metabolism, Adrenal Cortex, Reproductive Endocrinology, and Pediatric Endocrinology.

Each section contains summaries of selected articles, followed by editorial comments that further clarify the importance of each article and discuss its application for practicing physicians. Each section also contains an introduction by one of the associate editors, each of whom is an expert in his or her field.

Each selected article is included in the hopes that it will provide insight into endocrine problems faced by physicians in everyday practice. The 2012 editor's choice article is "Vandetanib in patients with locally advanced or metastatic medullary thyroid cancer: a randomized, double-blind phase III trial," published in The Journal of Clinical Oncology by Wells et al. The authors of the study investigated the effectiveness of vandetanib treatment in patients who have locally advanced or metastatic medullary thyroid cancer (MTC). According to Schott, the study illustrated “statistically significant advantages for vandetanib...for objective response rate, disease control rate, and biochemical response....Vandetanib is the first drug with the potential of reaching clinical effectiveness in a broad number of patients with advanced (and growing) MTC.”

Chapter 7—Reproductive Endocrinology is edited by A. Wayne Meikle, MD, professor of medicine and pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and medical director of Endocrinology & Automated Endocrinology laboratories at ARUP Laboratories, and consists of seven topics: Androgen Mechanism of Action, Estrogen and Coronary Artery Disease, Female Reproductive Function, Hypogonadism and Aging, Male Reproductive Function, Osteoporosis in Women, and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. In the introduction to this section and comments to each selected article, Dr. Meikle shares his expertise in the areas of androgen action, aging, metabolic syndrome, hypogonadism in men, and hormonal influences on bone metabolism, among others.