Molekylär endokrin patologi – Christofer Juhlins forskargrupp

Forskningen har som mål att identifiera molekylära nyckelhändelser och mutationer i tumörer i sköldkörteln, binjuren och andra endokrina tumörer, samt dessa kliniska applikationer inom endokrin patologi och molekylär patologi, för förbättrad diagnostik, prognosbedömning och behandling.

En del av:
Dekorativ histologisk bild av en tumör.

Vår forskning

Vi arbetar med att förbättra verktygen för att diagnostisera och prognostisera hormonproducerande tumörer från organ såsom sköldkörteln och bisköldkörtlarna i halsen, samt tumörer i buken, exempelvis binjure- och neuroendokrina tumörer. Vi använder moderna metoder inom genetik, epigenetik och proteomik, tillsammans med traditionell ljusmikroskopi och histopatologi, för att hitta markörer som kan hjälpa oss att bättre identifiera farliga tumörer och förutsäga sämre prognos. Vi studerar också hur normala och överaktiva endokrina körtlar fungerar.

Våra studier stöds av en av de största biobankerna för endokrina tumörer, avancerad sekvenserings- och bildteknik, samt ett starkt nätverk av kliniska experter. Genom dessa insatser vill vi förbättra klassificeringssystemen, göra det lättare att dela in patienter i olika grupper och hitta nya molekylära mål för behandling, vilket hjälper oss att utveckla precisionsmedicin inom endokrin patologi. Projekten är pågående samarbeten med forskare vid Karolinska Institutet, endokrinkirurgiska avdelningen vid Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset i Solna och flera nationella och internationella samarbetspartners.

Mer information finns på den engelska sidan.

Publikationer

Alla gruppmedlemmars publikationer

Finansiering

Forskningsbidrag

  • Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2024
    Thyroid cancer is becoming increasingly common in Sweden, and every year between 600-700 Swedes receive this diagnosis. Most patients are treated with surgery, and many patients subsequently receive radioactive iodine. There are different forms of thyroid cancer and the prognosis is mostly very good. However, a subgroup of patients suffer from relapse and distant spread - and here, in some cases, there is a lack of effective treatment. Today we know a number of genetic and microscopic risk factors that are linked to poorer prognosis, but we do not know exactly what it is that causes these molecular abnormalities to lead to serious disease. We want to overcome this problem. In the project, a number of different subgroups of thyroid cancer will be studied in detail with regard to molecular patterns to enable improved diagnostics, prognostics and treatment. We will analyze thyroid tumors from patients who have undergone surgery at Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, where we save tissue in connection with the performed surgery if the patient has previously given his consent to this. We want to identify protein patterns in thyroid cancer with established high-risk mutations, i.e. tumors with an increased risk of recurrence and spread. These proteins will then be mapped to try to develop markers for prognostication in clinical routine, and proteins with a clear link to existing, tailored treatment will be studied in detail. In addition, we want to map completely new gene mutations with unclear function, in order to evaluate how these affect tumor growth. Finally, we hope to identify molecules responsible for the cancer cells invading the tissue, with the goal of developing markers that gossip about spread.
  • Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2021
    Tumors in the thyroid gland are common, and the patient group is getting bigger every year - for reasons that are only partially known. The most common tumor form is called follicular tumors
    these are usually benign, but a malignant variant also occurs. Differentiating between these two forms is useless via biopsy, and thus all patients must be operated on for a diagnostic purpose. Another dilemma is that doctors do not always know how a malignant thyroid cancer should best be treated and followed up, as there is a partial lack of tools for how the tumors should be risk-assessed from a spread perspective. I want to introduce a molecular test into clinical use where small tissue biopsies from the thyroid gland are analyzed for a change (mutation) in the tumor's genetic material. This mutation indicates that a tumor has a significantly worse prognosis, and the hope is that the patient will receive a more adequate operation right from the start. Then I also want to introduce another test with an even broader analysis that is carried out once the tumor has been surgically removed, which also gives an indication of how serious the current tumor is. Finally, I am trying to find additional markers for the same purpose via a modern analysis of the tumor's genome. Cancer care cannot be conducted successfully without an accurate diagnosis
    knowing first of all which type of tumor to treat is the key to being able to cure a patient. My research tries to improve how we as doctors assess tumors in the thyroid gland and to implement the findings from the laboratory directly into everyday clinical practice. In this way, my research contributes to individualizing the assessment of these tumors, so that each individual patient can obtain an adequate prognosis based on a more high-resolution diagnosis than was previously possible to give.

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Nyckelord:
Anaplastiskt sköldkörtelkarcinom Binjurebarkssjukdomar Binjurebarkstumörer Binjuremärg Bisköldkörtelsjukdomar Visa alla
Innehållsgranskare:
Christofer Juhlin
Erika Rindsjö
2025-09-25