Translational Research in Pituitary Tumors

Although effective treatment regimens (surgical resection, drug treatment with dopamine agonists or somatostatin analogues, radiotherapy) have been established for the therapy of most pituitary tumors, a considerable proportion of affected patients cannot completely cured due to incomplete resection or drug resistance or persistent pathophysiological alterations after hormone normalization. Thus, additional treatment concepts are urgently needed. Materials & Methods: Measurement of hormones and metabolic, cardiovascular and neuropsychiatric parameters. Determination of quality of life by specific questionaires. Detection of new factors involved in pituitary tumorigenesis by cellular and molecular approaches. Aproval of putative new treatment options by animal experiments and clinical studies. Results: A discrepancy between biochemical cure (normalization of hormone levels) and incomplete recovery from tumor-associated comorbidities is often observed in patients with acromegaly and Cushing’s disease underlining the need for a lifelong treatment of persistent metabolic, cardiovascular and neuropsychiatric disorders in these patients. Regarding the development of additional treatment concepts for the treatment of pituitary adenomas, several factors (RSUME, BMP-4, ZAC1, retinoic acid, HSP90) have been detected and approved as potential targets for the development of new treatment options and the results from corresponding pre-clinical and clinical studies will be shown and discussed.Conclusion: Despite some progress, translation of pre-clinical findings to new therapeutic options is still a major challenge in pituitary tumor research.