Abstract
Acromegaly is a rare disease resulting from hypersecretion of growth hormone (GH) and insulin‐like growth factor 1 (IGF1) typically caused by pituitary adenomas, which is associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Somatostatin analogues (SSAs) represent the primary medical therapy for acromegaly and are currently used as first‐line treatment or as second‐line therapy after unsuccessful pituitary surgery. However, a considerable proportion of patients do not adequately respond to SSAs treatment, and therefore, there is an urgent need to identify biomarkers predictors of response to SSAs. The aim of this study was to examine E‐cadherin expression by immunohistochemistry in fifty‐five GH‐producing pituitary tumours and determine the potential association with response to SSAs as well as other clinical and histopathological features. Acromegaly patients with tumours expressing low E‐cadherin levels exhibit a worse response to SSAs. E‐cadherin levels are associated with GH‐producing tumour histological subtypes. Our results indicate that the immunohistochemical detection of E‐cadherin might be useful in categorizing acromegaly patients based on the response to SSAs.
Highlights
Is a rare disease resulting from hypersecretion of growth hormone (GH) and concomitant insulin‐like growth factor 1 (IGF1) typically caused by pituitary adenomas termed somatotropinomas
We performed a precise histological and immunohistochemical E‐cadherin examination in GH‐producing pituitary tumours using an automated system and an E‐cadherin antibody widely used in diagnostic pathology
E‐cadherin expression was assessed by IHC in 55 acromegaly patients with GH‐producing tumours, using an automated system and an E‐cadherin antibody widely used in diagnostic pathology
Summary
Is a rare disease resulting from hypersecretion of growth hormone (GH) and concomitant insulin‐like growth factor 1 (IGF1) typically caused by pituitary adenomas termed somatotropinomas. A number of histopathological and molecular markers of response to SSAs have been proposed during the last decades but none has been incorporated into routine clinical practice or in clinical guidelines for the management of acromegaly patients Molecular markers such as AIP, ZAC1 and RKIP and, prominently, somatotastin receptor subtypes (SSTRs) has been analysed in GH‐producing pituitary adenomas at the mRNA or protein level.[7,8,9,10,11,12,13] Another molecular marker associated with SSAs response is the accumulation of E‐cadherin.[14] E‐cadherin is a cell adhesion protein located at the cytoplasmic membrane and reported to work as a tumour suppressor. We analysed the relationship between E‐cadherin expression and GH‐ producing histological subtypes as well as SSTRs expression
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