Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Prolactinoma is the most common pituitary tumour; in the majority of cases it is a microadenoma.

Materials and methods: Through a retrospective study of 46 patients followed for macro prolactin adenomas we evaluate the response to medical treatment of macroprolactinoma. In our series, macroprolactinomas are more frequent in men (59%), more often diagnosed between the ages of 25 and 45. As expected, cranial tumour syndrome remains the main reason for consultation in both sexes in 65%. Biologically, the correlation between tumour volume and prolactin is clear, with levels slightly higher in men. Among the macroprolactinomas we recruit 37% of giant adenomas; more common in men. In terms of treatment, medical treatment is the first choice in 83% of cases. Surgery was used in 33% of cases, most often for compression of the optic tracts. Among our patients, 43% were resistant to medical treatment, more frequently in men.

Discussion: The aim of our work was to evaluate the therapeutic response of prolactin macroadenomas. As expected, our results are consistent with the data in the literature; macroadenomas adenomas are more frequent in men with a more striking clinical, biological and morphological presentation. The therapeutic management of macroprolactinoma also revealed a morphological resistance which is more frequent in men, because of a higher tumour volume. Despite this resistance, two thirds of our patients responded to medical treatment.