Patients are often cured, and otherwise a large majority can be controlled well enough to lead near normal lives.
Endocrine diseases lend themselves to thorough pathophysiological studies.
In recent years these pathophysiological studies have witnessed a rapid application of new discoveries and new genomic techniques, which have revolutionized medicine, and the field of endocrinology in particular. This has led to new knowledge concerning hormone biosynthesis, release and function, and also offers important information on phylogeny and ontogeny. Once regarded as a fundamental field, molecular biology has now entered clinical medicine. This symposium is a clear illustration of this development. The comparative aspects add an extra dimension.