Background Low-income communities and communities of color have been shown to experience disproportionate exposure to agricultural pesticides, which have been linked to poorer neurobehavioral outcomes in infants and children. Few studies have assessed health impacts of pesticide mixtures in the context of socioeconomic adversity. Objectives To examine associations between residential proximity to toxicity-weighted organophosphate (OP) and carbamate pesticide use during pregnancy, household- and neighborhood-level poverty during childhood, and IQ scores in 10-year-old children. Methods We evaluated associations between both nearby agricultural pesticide use and poverty measures and cognitive abilities in 10-year-old children (n = 501) using data from a longitudinal birth cohort study linked with data from the California Pesticide Use Reporting system and the American Community Survey. Associations were assessed using multivariable linear regression. Results Children of mothers in the highest quartile compared to the lowest quartile of proximal pesticide use had lower performance on Full Scale IQ [β = −3.0; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = (−5.6, −0.3)], Perceptual Reasoning [β = −4.0; (−7.6, −0.4)], and Working Memory [β = −2.8; (−5.6, −0.1)]. Belonging to a household earning an income at or below the poverty threshold was associated with approximately two point lower scores on Full Scale IQ, Verbal Comprehension, and Working Memory. Living in the highest quartile of neighborhood poverty at age 10 was associated with approximately four point lower performance on Full Scale IQ, Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, and Working memory. Conclusions Residential proximity to OP and carbamate pesticide use during pregnancy and both household- and neighborhood-level poverty during childhood were independently associated with poorer cognitive functioning in children at 10 years of age.

Recent advances in the arena of theranostics have necessitated a re-examining of previously established fields. The existing paradigm of therapeutic thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR) targeting in the post-surgical management of differentiated thyroid cancer using levothyroxine and recombinant human thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) is well understood. However, in an era of personalized medicine, and with an increasing awareness of the risk profile of longstanding pharmacological hyperthyroidism, it is imperative clinicians understand the molecular basis and magnitude of benefit for individual patients. Furthermore, TSHR has been recently re-conceived as a selective target for residual metastatic thyroid cancer, with pilot data demonstrating effective targeting of nanoparticles to thyroid cancers using this receptor as a target. This review examines the evidence for TSHR signaling as an oncogenic pathway and assesses the evidence for ongoing TSHR expression in thyroid cancer metastases. Priorities for further research are highlighted.

Nerves are emerging regulators of cancer progression and in several malignancies innervation of the tumour microenvironment is associated with tumour aggressiveness. However, the innervation of thyroid cancer is unclear. Here, we investigated the presence of nerves in thyroid cancers and the potential associations with clinicopathological parameters. Nerves were detected by immunohistochemistry using the pan-neuronal marker PGP9.5 in whole-slide sections of papillary thyroid cancer (ptc) (n = 75), compared to follicular thyroid cancer (FTC) (n = 13), and benign thyroid tissues (n = 26). Nerves were detected in most normal thyroid tissues and thyroid cancers, but nerve density was increased in PTC (12 nerves/cm 2 [IQR 7-21]) compared to benign thyroid (6 nerves/cm 2 [IQR: 3-10]) (p = 0.001). In contrast, no increase in nerve density was observed in FTC. In multivariate analysis, nerve density correlated positively with extrathyroidal invasion (p < 0.001), and inversely with tumour size (p < 0.001). The majority of nerves were adrenergic, although cholinergic and peptidergic innervation was detected. Perineural invasion was present in 35% of PTC, and was independently associated with extrathyroidal invasion (p = 0.008). This is the first report of infiltration of nerves into the tumour microenvironment of thyroid cancer and its association with tumour aggressiveness. The role of nerves in thyroid cancer pathogenesis should be further investigated.