Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are exogenous substances recognised as relevant tumourigenic chemicals. Studies show that even EDCs which were long abolished are still contributing to the increasing incidence of neoplasia. To investigate the association between human exposure to EDCs and the risk of endocrine-related tumours: breast, prostate, thyroid, uterus, testis, and ovary. A systematic review using PubMed, Scopus, and Embase was conducted, searching for original observational studies published between 1980 and 2020, approaching EDCs exposure and endocrine tumourigenic risk in humans. We comprised neoplasia of six endocrine organs. We included all the studies on EDCs reporting tumour odds ratio, risk ratio, or hazard ratio. Study levels of confidence and risk of bias were accessed applying accredited guidelines. Human-made accidents and natural EDCs were not considered in the present study. Our search returned 3271 papers. After duplicate removal and screening, only 237 papers were included (corresponding to 268 records). EDCs were grouped from the most frequently (pesticides) to the least frequently studied (salts). The most tumourigenic EDC groups were phthalates (63%), heavy metals (54%), particulate matter (47%), and pesticides (46%). Pesticides group comprised the highest number of retrieved studies (n = 133). Increased neoplasia risk was found in 43-67% of the studies, with a lower value for ovary (43%) and a higher value for thyroid (67%). The innovative nature of our review comes from including human studies of six endocrine-related neoplasia aiming to understand the contribution of specific EDCs groups to each organ's tumourigenesis. Thyroid was the organ presenting the highest cancer risk after EDC exposure which may explain the increasing thyroid cancer incidence. However, detailed and controlled works reporting the effects of EDCs are scarce, probably justifying conflicting results. Multinational and multicentric human studies with biochemical analysis are needed to achieve stronger and concordant evidence.

COVID-19 is currently considered a systemic infection involving multiple systems and causing chronic complications. Compared to other post-viral fatigue syndromes, these complications are wider and more intense. The most frequent symptoms are profound fatigue, dyspnea, sleep difficulties, anxiety or depression, reduced lung capacity, memory/cognitive impairment, and hyposmia/anosmia. Risk factors for this condition are severity of illness, more than five symptoms in the first week of the disease, female sex, older age, the presence of comorbidities, and a weak anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody response. Different lines of research have attempted to explain these protracted symptoms; chronic persistent inflammation, autonomic nervous system disruption, hypometabolism, and autoimmunity may play a role. Due to thyroid high ACE expression, the key molecular complex SARS-CoV-2 uses to infect the host cells, thyroid may be a target for the coronavirus infection. Thyroid dysfunction after SARS-CoV-2 infection may be a combination of numerous mechanisms, and its role in long-COVID manifestations is not yet established. The proposed mechanisms are a direct effect of SARS-CoV-2 on target cells, an indirect effect of systemic inflammatory immune response, and a dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis leading to decreased serum TSH. Only a few studies have reported the thyroid gland status in the post-COVID-19 condition. The presence of post-COVID symptoms deserves recognition of COVID-19 as a cause of post-viral fatigue syndrome. It is important to recognize the affected individuals at an early stage so we can offer them the most adequate treatments, helping them thrive through the uncertainty of their condition.

A higher prevalence for basal cell carcinoma (BCC) has been associated with radiation, namely with tinea capitis epilation treatment. To evaluate the prevalence of head and neck basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and to identify the major risk factors for BCC in individuals irradiated in childhood for tinea capitis treatment. We clinically observed 1,308 individuals from an original cohort of 5,356 irradiated between 1950 and 1963, registering previous skin lesions excisions and proposing for surgery all the suspicious lesions detected. In 585 participants, 47 with BCC, the skin pigmentation was measured. The overall prevalence of BCC was 8.0% and of multiple BCC was 2.4%. Both total (14.7%) and multiple BCC (6.6%) were significantly more common in the individuals who had received a higher radiation dose. Multiple BCC was more prevalent (3.7%) in younger irradiated individuals and total BCC (9.4%) in women. Participants with BCC and without BCC presented similar skin pigmentation. Younger age at irradiation, higher dose and female gender increased the risk of developing BCC in these irradiated individuals.

A substantial proportion of people with acute COVID-19 develop post-COVID-19 condition (previously known as long-COVID) characterized by symptoms that persist for months after the initial infection, including neuropsychological sequelae. Post-COVID-19 condition frequency varies greatly according to different studies, with values ranging from 4 to 80% of the COVID-19 patients.