Clinical and Pathologic Characteristics Predicted the Postoperative Recurrence and Progression of Pituitary Adenoma: A Retrospective Study with 10 Years Follow-Up

Diffusion-relaxation correlation spectrum imaging for predicting tumor consistency and gross total resection in patients with pituitary adenomas: a preliminary study

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the ability of diffusion-relaxation correlation spectrum imaging (DR-CSI) to predict the consistency and extent of resection (EOR) of pituitary adenomas (PAs).

METHODS

Forty-four patients with PAs were prospectively enrolled. Tumor consistency was evaluated at surgery as either soft or hard, followed by histological assessment. In vivo DR-CSI was performed and spectra were segmented following to a peak-based strategy into four compartments, designated A (low ADC), B (mediate ADC, short T2), C (mediate ADC, long T2), and D (high ADC). The corresponding volume fractions ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]) along with the ADC and T2 values were calculated and assessed using univariable analysis for discrimination between hard and soft PAs. Predictors of EOR > 95% were analyzed using logistic regression model and receiver-operating-characteristic analysis.

RESULTS

Tumor consistency was classified as soft (n = 28) or hard (n = 16). Hard PAs presented higher [Formula: see text] (p = 0.001) and lower [Formula: see text] (p = 0.013) than soft PAs, while no significant difference was found in other parameters. [Formula: see text] significantly correlated with the level of collagen content (r = 0.448, p = 0.002). Knosp grade (odds ratio [OR], 0.299; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.124-0.716; p = 0.007) and [Formula: see text] (OR, 0.834, per 1% increase; 95% CI, 0.731-0.951; p = 0.007) were independently associated with EOR > 95%. A prediction model based on these variables yielded an AUC of 0.934 (sensitivity, 90.9%; specificity, 90.9%), outperforming the Knosp grade alone (AUC, 0.785; p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

DR-CSI may serve as a promising tool to predict the consistency and EOR of PAs.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT

DR-CSI provides an imaging dimension for characterizing tissue microstructure of PAs and may serve as a promising tool to predict the tumor consistency and extent of resection in patients with PAs.

KEY POINTS

• DR-CSI provides an imaging dimension for characterizing tissue microstructure of PAs by visualizing the volume fraction and corresponding spatial distribution of four compartments ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]). • [Formula: see text] correlated with the level of collagen content and may be the best DR-CSI parameter for discrimination between hard and soft PAs. • The combination of Knosp grade and [Formula: see text] achieved an AUC of 0.934 for predicting the total or near-total resection, outperforming the Knosp grade alone (AUC, 0.785).

Usefulness of a clinicopathological classification in predicting treatment-related outcomes and multimodal therapeutic approaches in pituitary adenoma patients: retrospective analysis on a Portuguese cohort of 129 patients from a tertiary pituitary center

PURPOSE

A clinicopathological classification has been designed to predict recurrence/progression in patients with pituitary adenomas (PAs). We aimed to study its usefulness in predicting PAs that will have a challenging disease course and may require more often complex multimodal and multiple therapeutic approaches.

METHODS

Retrospective analysis of 129 patients with PAs operated in our institution between 2001 and 2020 (84 non-clinically functioning PAs, 32 acromegaly, 9 Cushing's disease, 2 prolactinomas and 2 thyrotropinomas). Grading was based on invasion and proliferation: 1a (non-invasive, non-proliferative; n = 59), 1b (non-invasive, proliferative; n = 17), 2a (invasive, non-proliferative; n = 38), and 2b (invasive, proliferative; n = 15).

RESULTS

Of the 129 patients, 68 (52.7%) were females, and the mean age at diagnosis was 53.7 ± 15.4 years. The mean follow-up duration was 93.1 ± 61.8 months. Grade 2b PAs when compared to other grades (2b-2a-1b-1a) had significantly higher rates of persistent tumor remnant within 1-year after operation (93-78-18-30%; p < 0.001), active disease at last follow-up (40-27-12-10%; p = 0.004), re-operation (27-16-0-5%; p = 0.023), irradiation (53-38-12-7%; p < 0.001), multimodal treatment (67-49-18-25%; p = 0.003), multiple treatment (33-27-6-9%; p = 0.017). Patients with grade 2b PAs also required a higher mean number of treatments (2.6-2.1-1.2-1.4; p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

This clinicopathological classification appears to be a useful grading system to identify PAs that may be more refractory and more often require complex multimodal and multiple therapeutic approaches. Invasive PAs, especially grade 2b tumors, may be more likely to need complex treatment approach, including radiotherapy, and may display higher rates of active disease at last follow-up, despite receiving higher number of treatments.

Is systematic Gadolinium injection relevant during MRI follow-up for non-functioning pituitary macroadenomas?

OBJECTIVE

To compare the performance of coronal contrast-enhanced T1-weighted (ceT1-w) and T2-weighted (T2-w) sequences for diagnosing progression during the MRI follow-up of Non-Functioning Pituitary MacroAdenomas (NFPMAs).

PATIENTS AND METHODS

106 patients, who had at least two MRIs for the follow-up of NFPMA, were enrolled retrospectively. The largest adenoma diameter was measured on coronal ceT1-w sequences and separately on T2-w sequences for all follow-up MRIs. Interobserver variability was also assessed by 2 independent neuroradiologists in a sample series of 100 examinations. Progression was defined by an increase ≥ 2 mm in diameter between 2 MRIs. Progression thresholds of 3 and 4 mm were also tested. The results of ceT1-w and T2-w sequences were analysed for concordance.

RESULTS

93.1% concordance was achieved between ceT1-w and T2-w coronal sequences in 580 follow-up MRIs. In the case of progression detected on at least one sequence, 64.4% concordance was documented for a 2-mm threshold, 87.7% for 3-mm and 97.1% for 4-mm. Discordance was mainly observed on the first postoperative MRI and in case of NFPMAs with multiple recurrences. Kappa was better for diagnosing progression on T2-w than on ceT1-w sequences (0.67 vs. 0.54). It should be noted that 100% agreement was observed between the 2 sequences in the 82 follow-up MRIs of patients with complete surgical resection.

CONCLUSION

93.1% concordance was achieved for coronal ceT1-w and T2-w sequences during the MRI follow-up of NFPMAs, thus challenging systematic injection of gadolinium. If MRI without gadolinium injection is a first-line option, our results suggest that ceT1-w sequences should be reserved for the first postoperative MRI and for the follow-up of aggressive and recurrent NFPMAs.

Effect of pituitary adenoma consistency on surgical outcomes in patients undergoing endonasal endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery

BACKGROUND

Most pituitary adenomas (PAs) are considered to have a soft tumor consistency. However, there is a non-negligible percentage (5-13%) of tumors presenting or exhibiting a fibrous consistency that would entail a more difficult and complicated surgical excision with higher surgical morbidity and mortality rates.

PURPOSE

To analyze the clinical consequences of PA tumor consistency on the surgical outcomes in patients undergoing endonasal endoscopic transsphenoidal (EET) pituitary surgery.

METHODS

An ambispective study of patients with PAs operated on through an EET approach in two Spanish tertiary hospitals over the last 12 years. A total of 226 consecutive interventions were carried out in the Neurosurgery Departments of the Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal (HURC) and the Hospital Universitario Puerta del Sur by the same neurosurgeon. PAs were grouped into soft (n = 150) and fibrous (n = 76). All patients underwent hormonal and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies before and after surgery. In addition, neurosurgical complications were recorded in each patient.

RESULTS

Fibrous adenomas were independently associated with lower resection rates compared to soft adenomas (fibrous gross total resection [GTR] rate 48.7% vs. 76.3%, p &lt; 0.001), even in those adenomas without invasion of the cavernous sinus (Knosp grades 0, I, and II). There were more intraoperative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks in patients with fibrous PAs. Moreover, fibrous PAs showed higher rates of postoperative hypopituitarism, permanent diabetes insipidus (DI) and postoperative treatments (hormonal treatment and radiotherapy). The excision of a fibrous PA required a longer surgical time (22.5 min more than soft PAs, p = 0.014), regardless of other factors.

CONCLUSION

The consistency of the PAs significantly conditions both the results of surgery (lower resections rates), complications (higher incidence of postoperative hypopituitarism, permanent DI), and the prognosis (higher incidence of postoperative treatments) of the patient undergoing EET.

A Preoperative MRI-Based Radiomics-Clinicopathological Classifier to Predict the Recurrence of Pituitary Macroadenoma Within 5 Years

Objective: To investigate the ability of a MRI-based radiomics-clinicopathological model to predict pituitary macroadenoma (PMA) recurrence within 5 years.

Materials and Methods: We recruited 74 recurrent and 94 non-recurrent subjects, following first surgery with 5-year follow-up data. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify independent clinicopathological risk factors. Two independent and blinded neuroradiologists used 3D-Slicer software to manually delineate whole tumors using preoperative axial contrast-enhanced T1WI (CE-T1WI) images. 3D-Slicer was then used to extract radiomics features from segmented tumors. Dimensionality reduction was carried out by the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). Two multilayer perceptron (MLP) models were established, including independent clinicopathological risk factors (Model 1) and a combination of screened radiomics features and independent clinicopathological markers (Model 2). The predictive performance of these models was evaluated by receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

Results: In total, 1,130 features were identified, and 4 of these were selected by LASSO. In the test set, the area under the curve (AUC) of Model 2 was superior to Model 1 {0.783, [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.718—.860] vs. 0.739, (95% CI: 0.665–0.818)}. Model 2 also yielded the higher accuracy (0.808 vs. 0.692), sensitivity (0.826 vs. 0.652), and specificity (0.793 vs. 0.724) than Model 1.

Conclusions: The integrated classifier was superior to a clinical classifier and may facilitate the prediction of individualized prognosis and therapy.

Exosomal miRNA Profiling is a Potential Screening Route for Non-Functional Pituitary Adenoma

Non-functional pituitary adenomas (NFPAs) are one of the most prevalent pituitary adenoma subtypes. The lack of reliable screening approach for NFPAs for the insidious clinical course usually leads to delays in medical therapy and consequently worse prognosis. Hence, we employed a sequence cohort (patient: control, 6:2) and a validation cohort (patient: control, 22:8) to develop a serum exosomal miRNA profile-based method for NFPA screening and prognosis prediction. We found that a total of 1,395 kinds of human miRNA were detected. Compared with healthy donors, 18 up-regulated and 36 down-regulated miRNAs showed significant expression alterations in NFPA patients. Target genes of differentially expressed miRNAs are mainly enriched in axonogenesis and cancer-associated terms. After validation, hsa-miR-486-5p, hsa-miR-151a-5p, hsa-miR-652-3p_R+1, and hsa-miR-1180-3p were promising biomarkers for NFPA, in which miR-486-5p was the most competent one. After a median of 33 months of prospective follow-up, exosomal hsa-miR-486-5p also was an efficient predictive biomarker for progression or relapse of NFPAs. By protein-protein interaction network construction of hsa-miR-486-5p targeted genes, the core modules revealed a high possibility that exosomal hsa-miR-486-5p regulated tumor progression by epigenetic regulation of MAPK signaling pathways. In conclusion, exosomal hsa-miR-486-5p, hsa-miR-151a-5p, hsa-miR-652-3p_R+1, and hsa-miR-1180-3p are candidate biomarkers for diagnosis and screening of NFPAs. More importantly, prospective follow-up reveals that hsa-miR-486-5p can be regarded as a significant predictor for prognosis of NFPAs.

Ki-67/MIB-1 and Recurrence in Pituitary Adenoma

Objectives Ki-67/MIB-1 is a marker of cellular proliferation used as a pathological parameter in the clinical assessment of pituitary adenomas, where its expression has shown utility in predicting the invasiveness of these tumors. However, studies have shown variable results when using Ki-67/MIB-1 association with recurrence. The purpose of this study is to determine if a high Ki-67/MIB-1 labeling index (LI) is predictive of recurrence in pituitary adenomas.

Methods A retrospective chart review was performed for patients undergoing pituitary adenoma resection with at least 1 year of follow-up. Additionally, systematic data searches were performed and included studies that correlated recurrence rate to Ki-67/MIB-1 LI. Our institutional data were included in a synthesis with previously published data.

Results Our institutional review included 79 patients with a recurrence rate of 26.6%. We found that 8.8% of our patients had a high Ki-67/MIB-1 LI (>3%); however, high Ki-67/MIB-1 was not associated with recurrence. The systematic review identified 244 articles and 49 full-text articles that were assessed for eligibility. Quantitative analysis was performed on 30 articles including our institutional data and 18 studies reported recurrence by level of Ki-67/MIB-1 LI. Among studies that compared Ki-67/MIB-1 ≥3 vs. <3%, 10 studies reported odds ratios (OR) greater than 1 of which 6 were statistically significant. A high Ki-67/MIB-1 had higher odds of recurrence via the pooled odds ratio (OR = 4.15, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.31–7.42).

Conclusion This systematic review suggests that a high Ki-67/MIB-1 should prompt an increased duration of follow-up due to the higher odds of recurrence of pituitary adenoma.

Clinical relevance of tumor consistency in pituitary adenoma

PURPOSE

To review the clinical relevance of pituitary adenoma (PA) consistency and its relationship to clinical presentation, radiologic and histopathological characteristics, and surgical outcomes.

BACKGROUND

PA consistency is a critical factor influencing operative planning, surgical outcomes, and patient counseling. There is no validated classification of PA consistency in the literature, and there are no current preoperative variables capable of predicting it.

REVIEW

We conducted a thorough literature review of the Medline, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases. The inclusion criteria were all articles that described PA consistency and correlated it with preoperative aspects, radiological, pathological, and operative findings, or clinical outcomes.

DISCUSSION

Although most authors differentiate easily aspirated (soft) tumors from those that are not (fibrous, might require prior fragmentation), there is no universally accepted PA consistency classification. Fibrous PA tends to be hypointense on T2WI and has lower apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values. Fibrous tumors seemed to present higher invasion into neighboring structures, including the cavernous sinus. Several articles suggest that dopamine agonists could increase PA consistency and that prior surgery and radiotherapy also make PA more fibrous. The anatomopathological studies identify collagen as being mainly responsible for fibrous consistency of adenomas.

CONCLUSIONS

Preoperative knowledge of PA consistency affords the neurosurgeon substantial benefit, which clearly appears to be relevant to surgical planning, risks, and surgery outcomes. It could also encourage the centralization of these high complexity tumors in reference centers. Further studies may be enhanced by applying standard consistency classification of the PA and analyzing a more extensive and prospective series of fibrous PA.

Autophagy inhibition enhances anti-pituitary adenoma effect of tetrandrine

Pituitary adenoma (PA) is a benign intracranial neoplasm originated from pituitary gland. Surgery is the first-line therapy for most of PAs, but lead to unsatisfactory prognosis in some cases. Tetrandrine (Tet) has anticancer effect on some cancers. However, growth inhibition effect on PA is unknown. To elucidate the inhibitory effect of Tet on the growth of PA and its potential mechanisms, we validated the in vitro and in vivo anti-PA effect of Tet and illustrated the cellular and molecular alterations by confocal microscopy observation, flow cytometry, and RNA interference. Tet inhibited PA cell growth in vitro and tumor progression in vivo. Tet induced autophagy and apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Low dosage (1.25 μM) of Tet induced PA cell autophagy by down-regulation of MAPK/STAT3 signal. While, higher dosage (5.0 μM) of Tet partially induced PA cell death through caspase-dependent apoptosis. Autophagy inhibitors enhanced Tet-induced caspase activity and apoptotic cell death. These findings demonstrated that Tet has anti-PA effect by inducing autophagy and apoptosis through MAPK/STAT3 signaling pathway attenuation and autophagy inhibition might enhance its anti-PA effect, indicating that Tet (or combined with autophagy inhibitor) is a potential therapeutic regimen for PAs.

Diffusion-weighted imaging for predicting tumor consistency and extent of resection in patients with pituitary adenoma

This study aimed to investigate the role of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in predicting tumor consistency, extent of surgical resection, and recurrence in pituitary adenoma (PA). We reviewed a prospectively collected database of surgically treated PA between March 2016 and October 2017. Predictors for extent of resection and recurrence/progression were assessed with logistic and Cox regression analysis. Of the 183 patients, the tumor consistency was found soft in 107 (58.5%) patients, intermediate in 41 (22.4%) patients, and hard in 35 (19.1%) patients. The mean of ADC ratio was 0.92 ± 0.22 for hard tumor, 1.03 ± 0.22 for intermediate tumor, and 1.41 ± 0.62 for soft tumor (P < 0.001). The mean collagen content was 25.86% ± 15.00% for hard tumor, 16.05% ± 9.90% for intermediate tumor, and 5.00% ± 6.00% for soft tumor (P < 0.001). Spearman analysis showed a significant correlation between ADC ratio and collagen content (ρ = - 0.367; P < 0.001). Gross-total resection (GTR) was obtained in 68.3% of patients, and multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that ADC ratio (OR, 12.135; 95% CI, 4.001-36.804; P < 0.001), giant PA (OR, 0.233; 95% CI, 0.105-0.520; P < 0.001), and invasion (OR, 0.459; 95% CI, 0.220-0.960; P = 0.039) were significantly predictive of GTR. Twenty-seven (14.8%) patients suffered recurrence/progression in the mean follow-up of 35.14 months. Invasion (HR, 2.728; 95% CI, 1.262-5.899; P = 0.011) was identified as independent predictors of recurrence/progression. ADC ratio of DWI could be used for preoperative assessment of tumor consistency, tumor collagen content, and extent of surgical resection, which might be useful in preoperative planning for patients with PA.

A Preoperative MRI-Based Radiomics-Clinicopathological Classifier to Predict the Recurrence of Pituitary Macroadenoma Within 5 Years

Objective: To investigate the ability of a MRI-based radiomics-clinicopathological model to predict pituitary macroadenoma (PMA) recurrence within 5 years. Materials and Methods: We recruited 74 recurrent and 94 non-recurrent subjects, following first surgery with 5-year follow-up data. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify independent clinicopathological risk factors. Two independent and blinded neuroradiologists used 3D-Slicer software to manually delineate whole tumors using preoperative axial contrast-enhanced T1WI (CE-T1WI) images. 3D-Slicer was then used to extract radiomics features from segmented tumors. Dimensionality reduction was carried out by the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). Two multilayer perceptron (MLP) models were established, including independent clinicopathological risk factors (Model 1) and a combination of screened radiomics features and independent clinicopathological markers (Model 2). The predictive performance of these models was evaluated by receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: In total, 1,130 features were identified, and 4 of these were selected by LASSO. In the test set, the area under the curve (AUC) of Model 2 was superior to Model 1 {0.783, [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.718-.860] vs. 0.739, (95% CI: 0.665-0.818)}. Model 2 also yielded the higher accuracy (0.808 vs. 0.692), sensitivity (0.826 vs. 0.652), and specificity (0.793 vs. 0.724) than Model 1. Conclusions: The integrated classifier was superior to a clinical classifier and may facilitate the prediction of individualized prognosis and therapy.

Analysis of Related Factors of Tumor Recurrence or Progression After Transnasal Sphenoidal Surgical Treatment of Large and Giant Pituitary Adenomas and Establish a Nomogram to Predict Tumor Prognosis

BACKGROUND

Pituitary adenoma (PA) is a benign neuroendocrine tumor caused by adenohypophysial cells, and accounts for 10%-20% of all primary intracranial tumors. The surgical outcomes and prognosis of giant pituitary adenomas measuring ≥3 cm in diameter differ significantly due to the influence of multiple factors such as tumor morphology, invasion site, pathological characteristics and so on. The aim of this study was to explore the risk factors related to the recurrence or progression of giant and large PAs after transnasal sphenoidal surgery, and develop a predictive model for tumor prognosis.

METHODS

The clinical and follow-up data of 172 patients with large or giant PA who underwent sphenoidal surgery at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine from January 2011 to December 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. The basic clinical information (age, gender, past medical history etc.), imaging features (tumor size, invasion characteristics, extent of resection etc.), and histopathological characteristics (pathological results, Ki-67, P53 etc.) were retrieved. SPSS 21.0 software was used for statistical analysis, and the R software was used to establish the predictive nomogram.

RESULTS

Seventy out of the 172 examined cases (40.7%) had tumor recurrence or progression. The overall progress free survival (PFS) rates of the patients at 1, 3 and 5 years after surgery were 90.70%, 79.65% and 59.30% respectively. Log-rank test indicated that BMI (P < 0.001), Knosp classification (P < 0.001), extent of resection (P < 0.001), Ki-67 (P < 0.001), sphenoidal sinus invasion (P = 0.001), Hardy classification (P = 0.003) and smoking history (P = 0.018) were significantly associated with post-surgery recurrence or progression. Cox regression analysis further indicated that smoking history, BMI ≥25 kg/m², Knosp classification grade 4, partial resection and ≥3% Ki-67 positive rate were independent risk factors of tumor recurrence or progression (P < 0.05). In addition, the nomogram and ROC curve based on the above results indicated significant clinical value.

CONCLUSION

The postoperative recurrence or progression of large and giant PAs is related to multiple factors and a prognostic nomogram based on BMI (≥25 kg/m²), Knosp classification (grade 4), extent of resection (partial resection) and Ki-67 (≥3%) can predict the recurrence or progression of large and giant PAs after transnasal sphenoidal surgery.

Prediction of the Recurrence of Non-Functioning Pituitary Adenomas Using Preoperative Supra-Intra Sellar Volume and Tumor-Carotid Distance

BACKGROUND

Currently, it is difficult to estimate the possibility of recurrence of nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas (NFPAs). Markers such as Ki-67 or transcription factors rely on postoperative pathology, while few indices can be used for preoperative prediction. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the predictive effectiveness of supra-intrasellar volume and tumor-carotid distance based on measurements derived from preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data.

METHOD

Ninety-eight cases of NFPAs were evaluated, along with their clinical characteristics and MRI features. Four radiologic indices were analyzed, including intrasellar tumor volume, suprasellar tumor volume, maximum horizontal tumor diameter, and intercarotid distance. The ratio of supra-intrasellar volume and ratio of tumor-carotid distance were measured using 3D Slicer software, and the sum of two ratios was defined as the V-D value. The correlation between recurrence and multiple factors was analyzed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression and Kaplan-Meier analysis, and ROC curves were used to estimate the prognostic performance of radiologic measurements in NFPAs.

RESULT

The supra-intrasellar volume ratio, tumor-carotid distance ratio and V-D value were significantly correlated with the recurrence of NFPAs. The predictive importance of the V-D value reached 84.5%, with a sensitivity of 83.7% and specificity of 67.3%. The cutoff limit of the V-D value was 1.53, and patients with V-D values higher than 1.53 tended to relapse much earlier.

CONCLUSION

The V-D value has predictive importance for the recurrence of NFPAs preoperatively. Patients with higher V-D values will undergo recurrence earlier and should be given greater consideration in terms of surgery and follow-up time.

Chromosomal instability in the prediction of pituitary neuroendocrine tumors prognosis

The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of copy number variations (CNV) on sporadic pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs) prognosis, to identify specific prognosis markers according to the known clinico-pathological classification. CGH array analysis was performed on 195 fresh-frozen PitNETs (56 gonadotroph, 11 immunonegative, 56 somatotroph, 39 lactotroph and 33 corticotroph), with 5 years post-surgery follow-up (124 recurrences), classified according to the five-tiered grading classification (invasion, Ki-67, mitotic index and p53 positivity). Effect of alterations on recurrence was studied using logistic regression models. Transcriptomic analysis of 32 lactotroph tumors was performed. The quantity of CNV was dependent on tumor type: higher in lactotroph (median(min–max) = 38% (0–97) of probes) compared to corticotroph (11% (0–77)), somatotroph (5% (0–99)), gonadotroph (0% (0–10)) and immunonegative tumors (0% (0–17). It was not predictive of recurrence in the whole cohort. In lactotroph tumors, genome instability, especially quantity of gains, significantly predicted recurrence independently of invasion and proliferation (p-value = 0.02, OR = 1.2). However, no specific CNV was found as a prognostic marker. Transcriptomic analysis of the genes included in the CNV and associated with prognosis didn’t show significantly overrepresented pathway. In somatotroph and corticotroph tumors, USP8 and GNAS mutations were not associated with genome disruption or recurrence respectively. To conclude, CGH array analysis showed genome instability was dependent on PitNET type. Lactotroph tumors were highly altered and the quantity of altered genome was associated with poorer prognosis though the mechanism is unclear, whereas gonadotroph and immunonegative tumors showed the same ‘quiet’ profile, leaving the mechanism underlying tumorigenesis open to question.

Long-term outcomes after endoscopic endonasal surgery for nonfunctioning pituitary macroadenomas

OBJECTIVE

Nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas are benign, slow-growing tumors. After gross-total resection (GTR) or subtotal resection (STR), tumors can recur or progress and may ultimately require additional intervention. A greater understanding of long-term recurrence and progression rates following complete or partial resection and the need for further intervention will help clinicians provide meaningful counsel for their patients and assist data-driven decision-making.

METHODS

The authors retrospectively analyzed their institutional database for patients undergoing endoscopic endonasal surgery (EES) for nonfunctioning pituitary macroadenomas (2003-2014). Only patients with follow-up of at least 5 years after surgery were included. Tumor volumes were measured on pre- and postoperative MRI. Tumor recurrence was defined as the presence of a 0.1-cm3 tumor volume after GTR, and tumor progression was defined as a 25.0% increase in residual tumor after STR.

RESULTS

A total of 190 patients were included, with a mean age of 63.8 ± 13.2 years; 79 (41.6%) were female. The mean follow-up was 75.0 ± 18.0 months. GTR was achieved in 127 (66.8%) patients. In multivariate analysis, age (p = 0.04), preoperative tumor volume (p = 0.03), Knosp score (p < 0.001), and Ki-67 (p = 0.03) were significant predictors of STR. In patients with GTR, the probability of recurrence at 5 and 10 years was 3.9% and 4.7%, and the probability of requiring treatment for recurrence was 0.79% and 1.6%, respectively. In 63 patients who underwent STR, 6 (9.5%) received early postoperative radiation and did not experience progression, while the remaining 57 (90.5%) were observed. Of these, the probability of disease progression at 5 and 10 years was 21% and 24.5%, respectively, and the probability of requiring additional treatment for progression was 17.5% and 21%. Predictors of recurrence or progression in the entire group were Knosp score (p < 0.001) and elevated Ki-67 (p = 0.03). Significant predictors of progression after STR in those who did not receive early radiotherapy were cavernous sinus location (p < 0.05) and tumor size > 1.0 cm3 (p = 0.005).

CONCLUSIONS

Following GTR for nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas, the 10-year chance of recurrence is low and the need for treatment even lower. After STR, although upfront radiation therapy may prevent progression, even without radiotherapy, the need for intervention at 10 years is only approximately 20% and a period of observation may be warranted to prevent unnecessary prophylactic radiation therapy. Tumor volume > 1 cm3, Knosp score ≥ 3, and Ki-67 ≥ 3% may be useful metrics to prompt closer follow-up or justify early prophylactic radiation therapy.