Prevalence of neoplasms in patients with acromegaly – the need for a national registry

Introduction Acromegaly is an endocrine disorder caused predominantly by pituitary adenoma leading to autonomic oversecretion of growth hormone and secondary elevation of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Consequently, there are both theoretical and experimental grounds for establishing a correlation between this disorder and the higher incidence of neoplasms. Objective The aim of the study is to evaluate the incidence and types of neoplasms among patients with acromegaly. Material and methods The study included 67 patients with acromegaly, aged between 24 and 75±18.8 years, 46 women (68.7%) and 21 men (31.3%), BMI: 30.7±5.7 kg/m2, age at diagnosis 49.1±12.5 years, with the medians of GH and IGF-1 levels at diagnosis of 11.3 ng/ml and 663.8 ng/ml, respectively. A retrospective analysis of medical records with particular regard to physical examination, medical history, laboratory and imaging tests was performed. Results Fifty-one patients (76.1%) suffered from at least one neoplasm, among whom 48 patients (71.6%) had benign proliferations, whereas malignant neoplasms (larynx, endometrial and colon cancers) were found in only three patients (4.5%). Conclusions Benign neoplasms were found in majority of patients with acromegaly (71.6%) most notably: nodular goiter and colon polyps; malignant lesions were rare (4.5%). Only every fifth patient suffered from no neoplastic proliferations. No correlations between the studied parameters and the incidence of neoplasms were found, most likely due to the small number of patients. This is the reason for proposing the creating of the first national register of incidences of neoplasms among acromegalic patients