Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Diagnosis and exact localization of minute adenomas in Cushing disease (CD) can be problematic, leading to unsuccessful trans-sphenoidal pituitary explorations (TSS). In addition to the well established inferior petrosal sinus sampling (IPS) first described in 1989, direct intraoperative cavernous sinus sampling (CSS) and in 1993, preoperative CSS with very small catheters, have been published (1,2). The experience in relatively small series had been promising, b...

Introduction: of non-functioning pituitary macroadenomas are associated with hyposecretion of the pituitary gland. In addition surgical therapy can lead to a partial or complete hypopituitarism. Data suggest that substitution of growth hormone can improve quality of life and reduce associated symptoms. However in many cases substitution is not started within the first 6–12 months after surgery. Therefore we intended to investigate if patients benefit from an early growth ...

Cushing’s disease is caused by ACTH-secreting pituitary adenomas. Gold standard therapy is the resection of the adenoma by transsphenoidal surgery with high cure rates even in cases of negative MR imaging. Surgical failure despite clear endocrinological test results is possible and mostly explained by hidden minute adenomas within the gland.We report on a 50-year-old woman suffering from ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome. Endocrinological work-...

The somatostatin analogue pasireotide is approved for the treatment of Cushing’s disease, where it achieves biochemical normalization in ~40% of patients. Predicting pasireotide resistance would help avoid unnecessary treatment. Pasireotide mediates its antisecretory action by binding to somatostatin receptor 5 (SSTR5). Almost half of corticotroph tumours carry mutations in the ubiquitin specific protease 8 (USP8) gene that encodes for a deubiquitinase. Pre...

IntroductionSomatic USP8 mutations are found in around 50% of Cushing’s disease tumours and are located in a single mutational hotspot that contains the recognition site for 14–3-3. These proteins bind to phosphoserine recognition motifs to alter the function and location of their target proteins, and are deregulated in several cancers. AimTo explore the expression and function of 14–3-3 prot...

IntroductionTP53 mutations have been rarely reported in pituitary tumours. Recently two exploratory exome sequencing studies have identified somatic TP53 mutations in a small number of functional corticotroph tumours (6/18 and 4/10) with USP8 wild type (wt) status, suggesting that they may be more frequent than previously thought. Nevertheless, the clinical impact of those mutations is still unknown.AimTo det...