Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2013) 32 S21.1 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.32.S21.1

ECE2013 Symposia Multi-centre pituitary studies (3 abstracts)

New classification of pituitary tumours based on the hypopronos database

Gerald Raverot 1,


1Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France; 2INSERM, UMR-S1028, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center - Université Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France.


Pituitary endocrine tumours are currently classified by histological, immunocytochemical and numerous ultrastructural characteristics but without prognostic clinical correlations. We investigated the prognostic value of a new clinicopathological classification with grades based on invasion and proliferation, the components of tumour behaviour.

This retrospective multicentric case–control study comprised 410 patients who had surgery for a pituitary tumour with long-term follow-up. Using pituitary magnetic resonance imaging for diagnosis of cavernous or sphenoid sinus invasion, immunocytochemistry, markers of the cell cycle (Ki-67, mitosis) and p53, the tumours were classified according to size (micro, macro and giant), type (PRL, GH, FSH/LH, ACTH and TSH) and grade (grade1a: non-invasive; 1b: non-invasive and proliferative; 2a: invasive; 2b: invasive and proliferative; and 3: metastatic). The association between patient status at 8 years follow-up and age, sex, and classification was evaluated by two multivariate analyses assessing disease-free or recurrence/progression-free status.

At 8 years after surgery, 195 patients were disease-free (controls) and 215 patients were not (cases). In 125 of the cases the tumours had recurred or progressed. Analyses of disease-free and recurrence/progression status revealed the significant prognostic value (P<0.001; P<0.05) of age, tumour type, and grade across all tumour types and for each tumour type. Invasive and proliferative tumours (grade 2b) had a poor prognosis; with an increased probability of tumour persistence or progression of 25- or 12-fold respectively compared to non-invasive tumours (grade 1a).

This new, easy to use clinicopathological classification of pituitary endocrine tumours has demonstrated its prognostic worth by strongly predicting the probability of post-operative complete remission or tumour progression and so could help clinicians choose the best post-operative therapy.

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