Molecular determinants of the response to medical treatment of growth hormone secreting pituitary neuroendocrine tumors.

Molecular determinants of the response to medical treatment of growth hormone secreting pituitary neuroendocrine tumors. Minerva Endocrinol. 2019 Jan 16;: Authors: Fuentes-Fayos AC, García-Martínez A, Herrera-Martínez AD, Jiménez-Vacas JM, Vazquez-Borrego MC, Castaño JP, Picó A, Gahete MD, Luque RM Abstract Acromegaly is a chronic systemic disease mainly caused by a growth hormone (GH)- secreting pituitary neuroendocrine tumor (PitNETs), which is associated with many health complications and increased mortality when not adequately treated. Transsphenoidal surgery is considered the treatment of choice in GH-secreting PitNETs, but patients in whom surgery cannot be considered or with persistent disease after surgery require medical therapy. Treatment with available synthetic somatostatin analogues (SSAs) is considered the mainstay in the medical management of acromegaly which exert their beneficial effects through the binding to a family of G-protein coupled receptors encoded by 5 genes (SSTR1- 5). However, although it has been demonstrated that the SST1-5 receptors are physically present in tumor cells, SSAs are in many cases ineffective (i.e. approximately 10-30% of patients with GH-secreting PitNET are unresponsive to SSAs), suggesting that other cellular/molecular determinants could be essential for the response to the pharmacological treatment in patients with GH-secreting PitNETs. Therefore, the scrutiny of these determinan...
Source: Minerva Endocrinologica - Category: Endocrinology Tags: Minerva Endocrinol Source Type: research