Lanreotide shrinks growth hormone-secreting adenoma in acromegaly patients

Treatment with the first-generation somatostatin analogue lanreotide leads to a significant reduction in the size of somatotroph macroadenomas in patients with acromegaly, with half of them even showing rapid improvement in visual symptoms, according to a study.

The study included 21 patients with de novo acromegaly resulting from pituitary macroadenoma and who presented with optic chiasm compression (grade ≤2) and/or cavernous sinus invasion. All of them were treated with a monthly injection of lanreotide 120 mg.

Researchers performed clinical, hormonal, ophthalmologic, and magnetic resonance imaging scan evaluations after the first and the third month of treatment.

Results showed a more pronounced reduction in tumour volume at 1 month (mean volume change, −31.4 percent; p<0.0001) than at 3 months of treatment (mean volume reduction, −20.6 percent; p=0.0009). The mean volume change between baseline and the third month was −46.4 percent (p<0.0001).

Of note, more than half of the patients (61.9 percent) already achieved a significant volume reduction (≥25 percent) after 1 month of treatment.

Of the 14 patients with optic chiasm compression and visual field defects, seven (50 percent) had visual field normalization or improvement, four (28.5 percent) achieved stabilization, and three (21.4 percent) showed mild worsening at 1 month.

The decrease in growth hormone and IGF-1 serum values was significant at 1 month.