RARE DISEASERESEARCH ATLAS
Open navigation menu

ORPHA:1672

Diencephalic syndrome

low confidenceDisorder

Also known as: Diencephalic cachexia · Diencephalic syndrome of childhood · Diencephalic syndrome of emaciation · Russell diencephalic cachexia · Russell syndrome

Publications

2,523

Trials

1

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,263

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

—

Readiness

3/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

Diencephalic syndrome (DS) is a rare condition characterized by profound emaciation and (with normal caloric intake and normal linear growth), hyperalertness, hyperkinesia and euphoria, in the presence of hypothalamic tumors.

How rare: How common this is has not been clearly measured.

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.

Additional Mondo synonyms (4)

diencephalic cachexia · diencephalic syndrome of childhood · diencephalic syndrome of emaciation · diencephalic syndrome of infancy

Research stages

Trial readiness signals

Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”

3/6 stages with a signal

An interventional trial matched this condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov — see trials below.

  1. Gene identifiedNot found

    No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build

  2. LiteraturePresent

    2,523 matched papers (1,345 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedPresent

    14 HPO annotations (e.g. Everted lower lip vermilion; Macrotia; Cachexia) Source

  4. Animal modelNot found

    No Alliance genotype “model of” associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs

  5. Orphan designationNot found

    No FDA or EMA orphan-drug designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name Source

  6. Interventional trialPresent

    1 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov

Biology

Genes and phenotypes

Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.

Do we know what causes it?

Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.

No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.

Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)

14

Associated phenotypes · MONDO:0015663

  • Everted lower lip vermilion
  • Macrotia
  • Cachexia
  • Long penis
  • Hydrocephalus

Showing 5 of 14 — open Monarch for the full list.

Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)

None returned for this Mondo ID. Empty here is not proof that no model organism work exists under another name or gene.

Monarch fetch 2026-07-29

Therapies

Designations, candidates, and chemicals

FDA OOPD and EMA orphan designations, Open Targets clinical candidates, and CTD chemical associations via MyDisease.info. These never change the interventional-trial headline.

Orphan designation (FDA · EMA)

No designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name on the FDA OOPD mirror or EMA orphan register. Absence here is not proof that none exists under another wording.

Open Targets candidates

No drugs or clinical candidates returned for this Mondo ID on Open Targets.

CTD chemicals (MyDisease.info)

No CTD chemical associations returned for this Mondo ID.

Literature

Is anyone studying this?

2,523

2,523 papers have been published on this condition. That is a real research literature — still far smaller than common diseases (breast cancer: over 700,000 papers). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=3967) is 59.

2,523 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 59 (publications denominator n=3967).

1,345 in the last 10 years · low confidence

Phrase hits: 2,523 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

1,263

Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.

Who's working on it?

People publishing on this condition (sampled Europe PMC records). Affiliation is the most recent found in that sample.

  1. 01
    Eggermann T9 papers · 2026

    Institute for Human Genetics and Genomic Medicine, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Netchine I9 papers · 2026

    Sorbonne Université, INSERM, Centre de Recherche Saint-Antoine, APHP, Hôpital Armand Trousseau, Endocrinologie Moléculaire et Pathologies d'Empreinte, Paris, France.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    van Santen HM8 papers · 2026

    Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, Wilhelmina Children's Hospital, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands, h.m.vansanten@umcutrecht.nl.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Russo S7 papers · 2025

    Cytogenetic and Molecular Genetics Laboratory, IRCCS, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milano, Italy.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Giabicani E6 papers · 2026

    Sorbonne Université, INSERM, Centre de Recherche Saint-Antoine, APHP, Hôpital Armand Trousseau, Endocrinologie Moléculaire et Pathologies d'Empreinte, Paris, France.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Davies JH5 papers · 2025

    Paediatric Endocrinology, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Kagami M5 papers · 2025

    Department of Molecular Endocrinology, National Research Institute for Child Health and Development, 2-10-1 Okura, Setagaya-Ku, Tokyo, 157-8535, Japan. kagami-ms@ncchd.go.jp.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Schouten-van Meeteren AYN5 papers · 2025

    Department of Neuro-Oncology, Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Vimercati A5 papers · 2025

    Experimental Research Laboratory of Medical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Via Ariosto 13, Milano, 20145, Italy.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Bakker B4 papers · 2025

    Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, Wilhelmina Children's Hospital, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands.

    Papers in Europe PMC

Clinical research

Is a treatment being tested?

1

interventional trials for this specific condition

1 interventional trial matched this specific condition name; none in our sample are currently recruiting.

Data as of 11 September 2026

1 interventional trial — more than 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5501 of 7126; this disease is at the 80.1th percentile).

low confidence · 80.1th percentile (trials denominator)

Recruiting interventional trials

From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set

1 interventional trials matched after quoted-phrase search and title/condition post-filter.

No currently recruiting studies in the matched set. Open the same search on ClinicalTrials.gov.

Observational and natural-history studies

3 observational studies match this condition. These do not test a treatment and are not counted in the interventional-trial headline, but they are genuine research: natural-history work often defines the endpoints needed for a future rare-disease trial, and families may be able to enroll.

Recruiting or not-yet-recruiting

Open the complete matched search on ClinicalTrials.gov

General rare disease registries you may be eligible for

These studies enroll across many rare conditions. They are not counted as evidence that anyone is studying this specific disease.

Other registries (secondary)

Broader net from EU CTIS, ISRCTN, and ICTRP when available — deduped against ClinicalTrials.gov IDs already counted above. Dual-model LLM relevance gates what we keep. These rows are not added to the interventional headline.

raw 0 · after dedupe 0 · already on CT.gov 0 · kept 0 · parent 0 · uncertain 0 · dropped 0 · fetched 2026-07-29

Source notes: ictrp: Error: ICTRP public search unavailable (WHO portal is SPA-only; SOAP needs partnership). Tried: https://apps.who.int/tri

No secondary-registry studies passed dual-model relevance for this condition name (after dedupe).

Where to find support

Condition-specific patient organisations, when Orphanet lists them, are on the disease’s Orphanet page. We also link umbrella groups that support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families.

Orphanet entry for Diencephalic syndrome — check Associations / patient organisations on that page.

India — NPRD

Last verified 2026-07-26

This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.

Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.

How we counted this

Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.

"Diencephalic syndrome" OR "Diencephalic cachexia" OR "Diencephalic syndrome of childhood" OR "Diencephalic syndrome of the childhood" OR "Diencephalic syndrome of emaciation" OR "Diencephalic syndrome of the emaciation" OR "Russell diencephalic cachexia" OR "Russell syndrome" OR "diencephalic syndrome of infancy" OR "diencephalic syndrome of the infancy"

Run this search on Europe PMC

ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):

"Diencephalic syndrome" OR "Diencephalic cachexia" OR "Diencephalic syndrome of childhood" OR "Diencephalic syndrome of the childhood" OR "Diencephalic syndrome of emaciation" OR "Diencephalic syndrome of the emaciation" OR "Russell diencephalic cachexia" OR "Russell syndrome" OR "diencephalic syndrome of infancy" OR "diencephalic syndrome of the infancy"

Interventional trials matched via: phrase (mesh = registered under a MeSH descriptor no name phrase would catch; recall-expansion = gene / selected parent terms used only for trials).

Study-type breakdown: 1 interventional · 3 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.

Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase

Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Confidence reasoning

  • Preferred label is short or not clearly distinctive
  • No synonyms dropped by stoplist
  • No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus
  • Publication count (2523) is extremely high with unknown/missing prevalence — treat as possible over-matching, not proven research intensity

Ingested 2026-07-26T17:56:39.445Z