Therapeutic Advances in Endocrinology and Metabolism

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy of octreotide therapy in acromegalic patients as primary or secondary therapy.

Methods: Ten acromegalic patients diagnosed at the Endocrinology Clinic in Sarajevo (seven females and three males, mean age 55.2 ± 7.2 years, age range 40–65 years, five patients with microadenoma and five patients with macroadenoma) were treated with octreotide. Among them, 60% of patients were operated on and the majority of the procedures were performed transnasaly (90%). That group of patients had recidivism of disease (pituitary adenoma and acromegaly). The concentration of human growth hormone (HGH) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) was evaluated at 0, 6 and 12 months, while magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was taken before the treatment and 12 months after. Eight patients received octreotide 30 mg/28 days, one patient received a dose of 20 mg and the other received 60 mg/28 days.

Results: Before treatment growth hormone (GH) levels were 50.87 ± 10.56 ng/ml (range: 26–64.9), IGF-1 were 776.66 ± 118.40 ng/ml (range: 526–934). Four patients (40%) were treated with primary octreotide treatment and six patients (60%) with secondary somatostatin analog treatment. At the beginning of therapy, there were no differences in terms of age, HGH levels and IGF-1 levels between primary and secondary treatment groups (p > 0.05). The difference between groups was only in regard to the size of tumors (p = 0.01). After 6 and 12 months the GH levels decreased to 1.61 ± 0.86 ng/ml (range: 0.7–2.65) and 1.85 ± 2.40 ng/ml (range: 0.0–8.3), respectively, while the IGF-1 became 305.90 ± 43.19 ng/ml after 6 months of treatment (range: 240–376) and 256.99 ± 71.43 ng/ml after 12 months of octreotide treatment (range: 126–325), respectively. The pituitary adenomas size prior to treatment was 9.57 mm, while after 12 months of treatment, the size decreased to 8.0 mm. After therapy, a GH decrease to less than 2.5 ng/ml was achieved in 90% of cases; tumor size decrease was achieved in 60% while normalization of IGF-1 was achieved in 100% of the patients, respectively. All differences about HGH and IGF-1 in each group were statistically significant (p < 0.05). In the group of acromegalic patients treated with octreotide LAR as primary therapy, the difference was more significant for GH and IGF-1 than for adenomas size.

Conclusions: Octreotide treatment of acromegaly not only decreases GH and IGF-1 concentrations, but also appears to diminish the size of the tumor in about 60% of cases. The somatostatin analogs are more efficient in the primary treatment of acromegalic patients, due to the fact that primary therapy is as effective as secondary therapy but primary therapy has small advantages when compared with secondary octreotide therapy because no surgical treatment is required before.

Pheochromocytomas are rare endocrine tumors that can present insidiously and remain undiagnosed until death or onset of clear manifestations of catecholamine excess. They are often referred to as one of the ‘great mimics’ in medicine. These tumors can no longer be regarded as a uniform disease entity, but rather as a highly heterogeneous group of chromaffin cell neoplasms with different ages of onset, secretory profiles, locations, and potential for malignancy according to underlying genetic mutations. These aspects all have to be considered when the tumor is encountered, thereby enabling optimal management for the patient. Referral to a center of specialized expertise for the disease should be considered wherever possible. This is not only important for surgical management of patients, but also for post-surgical follow up and screening of disease in patients with a hereditary predisposition to the tumor. While preoperative management has changed little over the last 20 years, surgical procedures have evolved so that laparoscopic resection is the standard of care and partial adrenalectomy should be considered in all patients with a hereditary condition. Follow-up testing is essential and should be recommended and ensured on a yearly basis. Managing such patients must now also take into account possible underlying mutations and the appropriate selection of genes for testing according to disease presentation. Patients and family members with identified mutations then require an individualized approach to management. This includes consideration of distinct patterns of biochemical test results during screening and the appropriate choice of imaging studies for tumor localization according to the mutation and associated differences in predisposition to adrenal, extra-adrenal and metastatic disease.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder in women of reproductive age that is associated with significant adverse short- and long-term health consequences. Multiple metabolic aberrations, such as insulin resistance (IR) and hyperinsulinaemia, high incidence of impaired glucose tolerance, visceral obesity, inflammation and endothelial dysfunction, hypertension and dyslipidemia are associated with the syndrome. Assessing the metabolic aberrations and their long term health impact in women with PCOS is challenging and becomes more important as therapeutic interventions currently available for the management of PCOS are not fully able to deal with all these consequences. Current therapeutic management of PCOS has incorporated new treatments resulting from the better understanding of the pathophysiology of the syndrome. The aim of this review is to summarize the effect of old, new and emerging therapies used in the management of PCOS, on the metabolic aberrations of PCOS