Adherence to somatostatin analog therapy for acromegaly

Abstract

The main goals of treatment for many diseases are to improve the prognosis of diseases and to enhance the quality of life. Among the barriers that restrict achieving these goals we have to mention adherence to treatment. Patients with chronic diseases, including acromegaly, are at increased risk of poor adherence to treatment. The duration of supervision of patients with acromegaly in most cases exceeds 25-30 years, which makes the issue of adherence to treatment extremely important.One of the main goals of the acromegaly treatment is to achieve the target values of STH and IGF-1, which ensures the regression of most clinical symptoms and restoration of life expectancy. For this purpose, a significant proportion of patients with acromegaly receive somatostatin analog treatment - as a second line of treatment after non-radical neurosurgical intervention, or as the first line of treatment if neurosurgical intervention could not be performed for any reason. Adherence to treatment is influenced by socio-economic factors, the characteristics of the drug, and the characteristics of the patient. Recent studies have shown that the easy administration of lanreotide provides better treatment adherence than octreotide. Factors that can reduce adherence to the treatment of acromegaly are old age, mental disorders, subjective opinion about the low quality of life, the need to visit medical institutions to administer the drug. On the contrary, the ability to perform subcutaneous injections (on their own or with the help of relatives) without visiting medical facilities, providing accessible information about the disease and the need for its treatment significantly increases adherence to treatment. It is necessary to continue research on the factors and methods of increasing adherence to drug treatment of acromegaly.