University Hospital of Würzburg

Principal Investigator

Institute Presentation

Over many years the Endocrine Unit of the Dept. of Medicine I (University of Würzburg) has focused its research on adrenal tumours. B. Allolio is co-founder of the German network for adrenal disease (GANIMED) and has initiated together with M. Fassnacht the German ACC Registry in 2003 (including clinical data of > 580 patients). Through these efforts the Endocrine Unit became a national reference centre for ACC which was followed by the initiation and coordination of the first phase III trial (FIRM-ACT) and other clinical trials involving ACC patients. Recently, in close collaboration with the Dept. of Nuclear Medicine, an adrenocortical specific imaging method using iodometomidate as a tracer has been established and several other tracers (for imaging and therapy of different adrenocortical tumour entities) are under investigation. For several compounds invention disclosures for patent application have been submitted. Together with the Dept. of Pathology the Endocrine Unit runs a local biobank for adrenal tissue and the biobank of the German ACC Registry group (including > 600 biosamples).

Prof. Allolio is national coordinator of the international FIRM-ACT trial on adrenocortical cancer and founder of the German ACC registry; he has received many awards including the Schoeller-Junkmann Award of the German Society for Endocrinology in 1988 and the European Medal of the Society for Endocrinology (UK) in 2010.

University Hospital Würzburg leads WP6, participates in WP2 and WP7 and contributes to WP1, WP4, and WP5. The main tasks within the project will consist of

• Exploration of new imaging techniques for the non-invasive differential diagnosis and assessment of malignancy of adrenal tumours
• Establishment of immunohistochemical markers for adrenal tumours