Experts offer Recommendations for Management of Pituitary Tumors

Posted on August 11, 2021 by MaryO

 

An international panel reached consensus for pre- and postoperative endocrine testing to manage adults undergoing transsphenoidal surgery, including measurement of prolactin and insulin-like growth factor I levels for all pituitary tumors.

In adults and children, transsphenoidal surgery represents the cornerstone of management for most large or functioning sellar lesions with the exception of prolactinomas, Maria Fleseriu, MD, FACE, an Endocrine Today Editorial Board Member, professor of medicine and neurological surgery and director of the Pituitary Center at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, and colleagues wrote in Pituitary. Endocrine evaluation and management are an essential part of perioperative care; however, the details of endocrine assessment and care are not universally agreed on.

“Perioperative management of patients undergoing pituitary surgery is fascinating, as it involves many specialties — endocrinology, neurosurgery and ENT — and patients also get discharged very quickly in some countries, such as the United States,” Fleseriu told Healio. “At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Physician Education Committee of the Pituitary Society, comprised of members from four continents, met to discuss a more streamlined process for workup before and after surgery for patients undergoing pituitary surgery. We have noticed big differences in management, but also some common themes, and decided to have a formal evaluation using a Delphi consensus and a much larger representation, with members from five continents.”

Building consensus

The task force behind the project, co-led by Nicholas A. Tritos, MD, DSc, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Pouneh K. Fazeli, MD, MPH, director of the neuroendocrinology unit and associate professor of medicine at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, created 35 questions and invited 55 pituitary endocrinologists to answer the questions in two Delphi rounds. Participants rated their extent of agreement with statements pertaining to perioperative endocrine evaluation and management, using a Likert-type scale.

Strong consensus, defined as at least 80% of panelists rating their agreement as 6 to 7 on a scale from 1 to 7, was achieved for 24 of 35 items. Less strict agreement, defined as ratings of 5 to 7, was reached for 31 of 35 items.

There were several significant findings, Fleseriu said.

Despite uncertainty in previous guidelines, panelists reached consensus to measure serum IGF-I for all patients with pituitary tumors preoperatively to ensure proper diagnosis of growth hormone excess, Fleseriu said.

“This is important because patients with GH-secreting adenomas do not always present with classic manifestations of acromegaly, require additional evaluation for comorbidities and postoperatively may benefit from further medical therapy or other adjuvant treatment,” Fleseriu said.

Panelists also expressed agreement on preoperative administration of glucocorticoid and thyroid hormone replacement for patients with diagnosed deficiencies, as well as perioperative use of stress-dose glucocorticoid coverage for patients with known or suspected hypoadrenalism, but not for all patients undergoing transsphenoidal surgery. Panelists also agreed on postoperative monitoring of serum sodium and cortisol and the use of desmopressin on-demand, required to control hypernatremia and/or polyuria, for patients with central diabetes insipidus.

“Agreement was achieved on postoperative monitoring of endocrine function, including morning serum cortisol in patients with Cushing’s disease, as well as serum IGF-I in patients with acromegaly,” Fleseriu said.

More research needed

Panelists did not reach consensus for a minority of items, representing areas where further research is needed, including measuring serum prolactin in dilution for all patients with large macroadenomas, Fleseriu said.

“Prolactin immunoassays can be susceptible to the ‘hook effect’ artifact, which may lead to substantial underreporting of prolactin values in sera containing very high prolactin concentrations, thus having important implications for patient management,” Fleseriu said. “Newer automated immunoassay platforms are likely to detect the hook effect; however, this may not be the case in older assays, which are still in use in many countries or laboratories. Therefore, especially when surgery is performed at an institution where automated assays are available to detect hook effect, yet patient workup has been carried out at an outside laboratory, additional lab workup might be needed. We envision this scenario can occur more often with the widespread use of telemedicine and endocrine testing being carried out at a distant laboratory.”

Additionally, there was a lack of consensus regarding preoperative testing for hypercortisolism in all patients with an apparently nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma. “This might reflect concern about false-positive results of endocrine testing in some individuals,” Fleseriu said. “On the other hand, published data suggest that some patients with Cushing’s disease may lack typical symptoms and signs and can present with an incidentally found sellar mass.”

Panelists did not reach consensus on items concerning preoperative medical therapy for patients with acromegaly or Cushing’s disease, potentially reflecting differences in practice among international centers, the clinical heterogeneity of patient populations, and ongoing uncertainties regarding the benefits of preoperative medical therapy.

“Single-center clinical experience suggests that preoperative medical therapy may be helpful in patients with Cushing’s disease and severe acute psychiatric illness or sepsis,” Fleseriu said. “Studies on acromegaly have very discordant results.

“With this study — the largest international Delphi consensus on perioperative management of patients undergoing pituitary surgery — we identified key steps in protocols which are ready to be implemented in most centers, especially for preoperative evaluation, sodium abnormalities and glucocorticoids administration postop,” Fleseriu said. “We have also highlighted several areas where need for more research is needed to optimize patients’ outcomes.”

For more information:

Maria Fleseriu, MD, FACE, can be reached at fleseriu@ohsu.edu; Twitter: @MariaFleseriu.

From https://www.healio.com/news/endocrinology/20210810/experts-offer-recommendations-for-management-of-pituitary-tumors

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More Gradual Dose Titration Could Reduce Hypocortisolism Risk with Osilodrostat in Cushing’s Disease

Posted on June 3, 2021 by MaryO

Data from LINC3 and LINC4 provide insight into the impact of dosing titration schedules on risk of hypocortisolism-related adverse events associated with osilodrostat use in patients with Cushing’s disease.

Data from a pair of phase 3 studies presented at the American Academy of Clinical Endocrinology’s 30th Annual Meeting (AACE 2021) is providing insight into the effect of dose titration schedules with use of osilodrostat (Isturisa) in patients with Cushing’s disease.

Presented by Maria Fleseriu, MD, of Oregon Health and Science University, the analysis of the LINC3 and LINC4 demonstrated the more gradual titration occurring in LINC4 resulted in a lower proportion of hypocortisolism-related adverse events, suggesting up-titration every 3 weeks rather than every 2 weeks could help lower event risk without compromising mean urinary free cortisol (mUFC) control.

“For patients with Cushing’s disease, osilodrostat should be initiated at the recommended starting dose with incremental dose increases, based on individual response/tolerability aimed at normalizing cortisol levels,” concluded investigators.

With approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in March 2020 for patients not eligible for pituitary surgery or have undergone the surgery but still have the disease, osilodrostat became the first FDA-approved therapy address cortisol overproduction by blocking 11β-hydroxylase. Based on results of LINC3, data from the trial, and the subsequent LINC4 trial, provide the greatest available insight into use of the agent in this patient population.

The study presented at AACE 2021 sought to assess whether slow dose up titration might affect rates of hypocortisolism-related adverse events by comparing titration schedules from both phase 3 trials. Median osilodrostat exposure was 75 (IQR, 48-117) weeks and 70 (IQR, 49-87) weeks in LINC3 and LINC4, respectively. The median time to first mUFC equal to or less than ULN was 41 (IQR, 30-42) days in LINC3 and 35 (IQR, 34-52) days in LINC4.

Adverse events potentially related to hypocortisolism were more common among patients in LINC3 (51%, n=70) than LINC4 (27%, n=20). Upon analysis of adverse events, investigators found the most commonly reported type of adverse event was adrenal insufficiency, which included events of glucocorticoid deficiency, adrenocortical insufficiency, steroid withdrawal syndrome, and decreased urinary free cortisol.

Results incited the majority of hypocortisolism-related adverse events occurred during the dos titration periods of each trial. In LINC3, 54 of the 70 (77%) hypocortisolism-related adverse events occurred by week 26. In comparison, 58% of hypocortisolism-related adverse events occurring in LINC4 occurred prior to week 12. Investigators noted most of events that occurred were mild or moderate and managed with dose interruption or reduction of osilodrostat or concomitant medications.

This study, “Effect of Dosing and Titration of Osilodrostat on Efficacy and Safety in Patients with Cushing’s Disease (CD): Results from Two Phase III Trials (LINC3 and LINC4),” was presented at AACE 2021.

From https://www.endocrinologynetwork.com/view/fda-panels-votes-to-support-teplizumab-potential-for-delaying-type-1-diabetes

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Slow and Steady With Osilodrostat Best in Cushing’s Disease

Posted on May 28, 2021 by MaryO

Gradual dose escalation had fewer adverse events, same therapeutic benefit, as quicker increases

by Kristen Monaco, Staff Writer, MedPage Today May 27, 2021 A more gradual increase in oral osilodrostat (Isturisa) dosing was better tolerated among patients with Cushing’s disease, compared with those who had more accelerated increases, a researcher reported.

Looking at outcomes from two phase III trials assessing osilodrostat, only 27% of patients had hypocortisolism-related adverse events if dosing was gradually increased every 3 weeks, said Maria Fleseriu, MD, of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, in a presentation at the virtual meeting of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE).

On the other hand, 51% of patients experienced a hypocortisolism-related adverse event if osilodrostat dose was increased to once every 2 weeks.

Acting as a potent oral 11-beta-hydroxylase inhibitor, osilodrostat was first approved by the FDA in March 2020 for adults with Cushing’s disease who either cannot undergo pituitary gland surgery or have undergone the surgery but still have the disease. The drug is currently available in 1 mg, 5 mg, and 10 mg film-coated tablets.

The approval came based off of the positive findings from the complementary LINC3 and LINC4 trials.

The LINC3 trial included 137 adults with Cushing’s disease with a mean 24-hour urinary free cortisol concentration (mUFC) over 1.5 times the upper limit of normal (50 μg/24 hours), along with morning plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone above the lower limit of normal (9 pg/mL).

During the open-label, dose-escalation period, all the participants were given 2 mg of osilodrostat twice per day, 12 hours apart. Over this 12-week titration phase, dose escalations were allowed once every 2 weeks if there were no tolerability issues to achieve a maximum dose of 30 mg twice a day.

After this 12-week dose-escalation schedule, additional bumps up in dose were permitted every 4 weeks. The median daily osilodrostat dose was 7.1 mg.

The LINC4 trial included 73 patients with Cushing’s disease with an mUFC over 1.3 times the upper limit of normal. The 48 patients randomized to receive treatment were likewise started on 2 mg bid of osilodrostat. However, this trial had a more gradual dose-escalation schedule, as doses were increased only every 3 weeks to achieve a 20 mg bid dose.

After the 12-week dose-escalation phase, patients on a dose over 2 mg bid were restarted on 2 mg bid at week 12, where dose escalations were permitted once every 3 weeks thereafter to achieve a maximum 30 mg bid dose during this additional 36-week extension phase.

Patients in this trial achieved a median daily osilodrostat dose of 5.0 mg.

In both studies, patients’ median age was about 40 years, the majority of patients were female, and about 88% had undergone a previous pituitary surgery.

When comparing the adverse event profiles of both trials, Fleseriu and colleagues found that more than half of patients on the 2-week dose-escalation schedule experienced any grade of hypercortisolism-related adverse events. About 10.2% of these events were considered grade 3.

About 28% of these patients had adrenal insufficiency — the most common hypercortisolism-related adverse event reported. This was a catch-all term that include events like glucocorticoid deficiency, adrenocortical insufficiency, steroid withdrawal syndrome, and decreased cortisol, Fleseriu explained.

Conversely, only 27.4% of patients on a 3-week dose escalation schedule experienced a hypercortisolism-related adverse event, and only 2.7% of these were grade 3.

No grade 4 events occurred in either trial, and most events were considered mild or moderate in severity.

“These adverse events were not associated with any specific osilodrostat dose of mean UFC level,” Fleseriu said, adding that most of these events occurred during the initial dose-escalation periods.

About 60% and 58% of all hypocortisolism-related adverse events occurred during the dose titration period in the 2-week and 3-week dose-escalation schedules, respectively. These events were managed via dose reduction, a temporary interruption in medication, and/or a concomitant medication.

Very few patients in either trial permanently discontinued treatment due to these adverse events, Fleseriu noted.

“Despite differences in the frequency of dose escalation, the time to first mUFC normalization was similar in the LINC3 and LINC4 studies,” she said, adding that “gradual increases in osilodrostat dose from a starting dose of 2 mg bid can mitigate hypocortisolism-related adverse events without affecting mUFC control.”

“For patients with Cushing’s disease, osilodrostat should be initiated at the recommended starting dose with incremental dose increases, based on individual response and tolerability aimed at normalizing cortisol levels,” Fleseriu concluded.

  • Kristen Monaco is a staff writer, focusing on endocrinology, psychiatry, and dermatology news. Based out of the New York City office, she’s worked at the company for nearly five years.

Disclosures

The LINC3 and LINC4 trials were funded by Novartis.

Fleseriu reported relationships with Novartis, Recordati, and Strongbridge Biopharma.

Primary Source

American Association of Clinical Endocrinology

Source Reference: Fleseriu M, et al “Effect of dosing and titration of osilodrostat on efficacy and safety in patients with Cushing’s disease (CD): Results from two phase III trials (LINC3 and LINC4)” AACE 2021.

From https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/aace/92824?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2021-05-28&eun=g1406328d0r&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily Headlines Top Cat HeC 2021-05-28&utm_term=NL_Daily_DHE_dual-gmail-definition

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Metyrapone Effective and Safe in Endogenous Cushing’s Syndrome in Long Term

Posted on May 27, 2021 by MaryO

HRA Pharma Rare Diseases, an affiliate of privately-held French healthcare company HRA Pharma, has revealed data from the six-month extension of PROMPT, the first ever prospective study designed to evaluate metyrapone long-term efficacy and tolerability in endogenous Cushing’s syndrome.

After confirming good efficacy and safety of metyrapone in the first phase of the study that ran for 12 weeks, the results of the six-month extension showed that metyrapone successfully maintains low urinary free cortisol (UFC) levels with good tolerability.

The data will be presented at the European Congress of Endocrinology 2021 next week.

Metyrapone is approved in Europe for the treatment of endogenous Cushing’s syndrome. It works by inhibiting the 11-beta-hydroxylase enzyme, the final step in cortisol synthesis.

From https://www.thepharmaletter.com/in-brief/brief-metyrapone-effective-and-safe-in-endogenous-cushing-s-syndrome-in-long-term-says-hra-pharma-rare-diseases

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What Causes Blood Sugar to Rise in Non-Diabetics?

Posted on May 26, 2021 by MaryO

High blood sugar or glucose, also called hyperglycemia, occurs when there is too much sugar in the blood. High blood sugar is the primary symptom that underlies diabetes, but it can also occur in people who don’t have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, either because of stress or trauma, or gradually as a result of certain chronic conditions.

It is important to manage high blood sugar, even if you don’t have diabetes, because elevated blood glucose can delay your ability to heal, increase your risk of infections, and cause irreversible damage to your nerves, blood vessels, and organs, such as your eyes and kidneys. Blood vessel damage from high blood sugar also increases your risk of heart attack and stroke.

Non-Diabetic Hyperglycemia and Prediabetes

You are considered to have impaired glucose tolerance or prediabetes if you have a fasting glucose level between 100–125 mg/dL, and hyperglycemia if your fasting blood glucose level is greater than 125 mg/dL, or greater than 180 mg/dL one to two hours after eating.

The body obtains glucose mainly through carbohydrate consumption, but also through the breakdown of glycogen to glucose—a process called glycogenolysis—or conversion of non-carbohydrate sources to glucose—called gluconeogenesis—that primarily occurs in the liver.

While 50% to 80% of glucose is used by the brain, kidneys, and red blood cells for energy, the remaining supply of glucose is used to produce energy. It is stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles, and can be tapped into at a later time for energy or converted into fat tissue.

In healthy people, blood glucose levels are regulated by the hormone insulin to stay at a steady level of 80–100 mg/dL. Insulin maintains steady blood sugar by increasing the uptake and storage of glucose and decreasing inflammatory proteins that raise blood sugar when there is an excess of glucose in the blood.

Certain conditions can increase your blood glucose levels by impairing the ability of insulin to transport glucose out of the bloodstream. When this occurs, you develop hyperglycemia, which puts you at an increased risk of prediabetes, diabetes, and related complications.

Common Causes

Cushing’s Syndrome

Cushing’s syndrome results from excess secretion of the adrenocorticotropic hormone, a hormone produced in the anterior portion of the pituitary gland that causes excess cortisol to be produced and released from the adrenal glands. Pituitary adenomas, or tumors of the pituitary gland, are the cause of Cushing’s syndrome in more than 70% of cases, while prolonged use of corticosteroid medication can also significantly increase the risk.

People with Cushing’s syndrome are at an increased risk of developing impaired glucose tolerance and hyperglycemia as a result of increased levels of cortisol throughout the body. Cortisol is a hormone that counteracts the effects of insulin by blocking the uptake of glucose from the bloodstream, thereby increasing insulin resistance and maintaining high blood sugar levels. Elevated cortisol levels also partially decrease the release of insulin from where it is produced in the pancreas.

Approximately 10% to 30% of people with Cushing’s syndrome will develop impaired glucose tolerance, while 40% to 45% will develop diabetes.

Corticosteroid medication is often prescribed to decrease inflammation throughout the body, but can lead to the development of Cushing’s syndrome and hyperglycemia because it activates specific enzymes that increase the conversion of non-carbohydrate molecules into glucose (gluconeogenesis). Corticosteroids also disrupt pancreatic cell function by inhibiting cell signaling pathways involved in the release of insulin from the pancreas.

Read other causes at https://www.verywellhealth.com/causes-blood-sugar-rise-in-non-diabetics-5120349

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