Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: To study the relationship between the age of patients and the dynamics of the size of somatotropinomas after radiation therapy (RT).

Materials and methods: The object of the study is 94 patients with acromegaly who received RT. The average age was 43.8 ± 10.4 years. The patients were divided by age into the following groups: Group I 16-29 years old (9 patients); II group 30-44 years old (44 patients); III group 45-59 years old (34 patients); IV group 60-74 years old (7 patients).

Results: The analysis shows that before RT in group I, macroadenomas were observed in 84.9% of cases, microadenomas in 3.8% and giant adenomas in 11.3% of cases. In group II, microadenomas accounted for 3%, macroadenomas - 82.4%, giant adenomas - 14.7%. In group III, macroadenomas were 85.7%, giant adenomas - 16%. Moreover, giant adenomas tended to increase in parallel with increasing age also if in patients of group I they accounted for 11.3% of cases, increased to 14.7% and 16.3% in groups I and III, respectively. Assessment of the dynamics of the size of education in different age groups against the background of RT also revealed interesting results. After RT in group I, cases of microadenomas increased to 30.2%, macroadenomas decreased 1.3 times and amounted to 67.9%, and giant adenomas 1.89%. In group II, up to the stage of microadenomas decreased in 38.2% of patients (due to a decrease in cases of macroadenomas and giant adenomas), cases of macroadenomas decreased almost 1.5 times, and one patient experienced a recurrence of pituitary adenoma. So, in the long-term periods of post-radiation therapy, a significant decrease in the size of somatotropinoma was observed (P<0.01). In group III of patients, 43% of patients had microadenomas, the frequency of macroadenomas decreased by 1.5 times - in 57% of patients, no giant adenomas were detected.

Conclusion: The use of RT leads to a significant decrease in the size of the growth hormone in all age periods. In the age period from 30 to 59 years, a significant improvement in the results was observed in the long term after RT.