Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: People are at higher risk for malignancy as they get older or have a strong family history of cancer.

Aim: To collect family history of cancer in a large cohort of patients with pituitary adenomas (PA) in Outpatient clinic from years 2005–2017.

Results: Overall 46% of 1100 patients with PA had a family member affected with cancer. Breast cancer in family members was reported in 15.3% of patients with prolactinomas which was significantly higher than in families of patients with non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFPA) (10.0%, P=0.020) or acromegaly (6.8%, P=0.002). Lung cancer in family members was reported in 12.1% of patients with prolactinomas,significantly higher than in families of NFPA patients (7.0%, P=0.012). Colorectal cancer in the relatives of patients was reported with any type of PA. Furthermore, patients with a positive family history of malignancy were diagnosed with PA at an earlier age than patients with a negative family history. In a separate analysis 75 (6.8%) patients with PA were diagnosed with cancer (NFPA, 38/470; acromegaly 20/221; prolactinoma 14/372, M.Cushing 3/37). Overall age incidence patterns showed higher risk at older age. Almost 50% of patients with PA who had cancer had a positive family history of malignancy.

Conclusion: These results suggest familial cancer clustering in patients with PA. In particular there is a strong association between prolactinoma and family history of breast and lung cancers, borderline with colorectal cancer. These results suggest that patients with PA and associated tumors in the family share genetic susceptibility. The results also emphasize the value of readily available family cancer history in the clinical genetic risk assessment for screening and prevention strategies in patients with PA.