Medical treatment of Cushing’s disease: Overview and recent findings

Posted on October 21, 2009 by MaryO

Published Date October 2009

Journal: International Journal of General Medicine

Stephanie Smooke Praw1, Anthony P Heaney1,2

1Department of Medicine, 2Department of Neurosurgery, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Abstract: Cushing’s disease, due to pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) hypersecretion, is the most common etiology of spontaneous excess cortisol production. The majority of pituitary tumors causing Cushing’s disease measure <1 cm and the excess morbidity associated with these tumors is mostly due to the effects of elevated, nonsuppressible, ACTH levels leading to adrenal steroid hypersecretion. Elevated circulating cortisol levels lead to abnormal fat deposition, hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, osteoporosis, muscle weakness and psychological disturbances. At experienced centers, initial surgical remission rate via transnasal, transphenoidal resection approaches 80% for tumors less than 1 cm, but may be as low as 30% for larger lesions and long-term recurrence in all groups approaches 25%. Residual disease may be managed with more radical surgery, pituitary-directed radiation, bilateral adrenalectomy, or medical therapy. This paper addresses current and novel therapies in various stages of development for Cushing’s disease.

Keywords: Cushing’s disease, treatment, pasireotide, PPAR-γ, 11 β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase inhibitors, dopamine agonists

Download article (Free!): http://dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=5388

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Interview with MaryO

Posted on October 12, 2009 by MaryO

Listen to CushingsHelp on internet talk radio

The Call-In number for questions or comments is (646) 200-0162.

Cushing’s Help Founder, MaryO

MaryO“MaryO”, Mary O’Connor is the founder and webmaster for Cushings-Help.com and related sites. She is also a Piano Teacher and web designer in northern Virginia. She started having Cushing’s symptoms in early 1983 and finally had pituitary surgery at the NIH in November, 1987, Mary is a 25+ year survivor of Cushing’s Disease.

Due to her Cushing’s experiences and the lack of websites for people with Cushing’s, Mary founded the Cushings-Help website in 2000 to help others who were dealing with the rigors of testing and surgery.

MaryO, as she is fondly called by the members of the support board she runs in conjunction with the website, has been instrumental in educating thousands of people about Cushing’s. Through the use of her website and support boards, these same folks have been able to garner support and information invaluable to their diagnosis and treatment.

Mary is a survivor. Not only has she survived, but she has enabled so many others of us to survive, also.

She has been recognized in Forbes Magazine, many newspaper and journal articles, and is a speaker at Cushing’s Awareness events. She is married to Tom and has a grown son, Michael.

Intro: Hello, I have with us today Mary O’Connor, founder of the cushings dash help dot com website. Mary is a 20 plus year survivor of Cushing’s Disease. For those who do not know what Cushing’s Disease is, you may want to peruse the Cushings-help website. Briefly, it is an endocrine-related disease caused by a pituitary tumor (also called an adenoma) which causes life-threatening symptoms. Cushing’s Syndrome is a similar disease caused by an adrenal or other tumor.

MaryO, as she is fondly called by the members of the support board she runs in conjunction with the website, has been instrumental in educating thousands of people about Cushing’s. Through the use of her website and support boards, these same folks have been able to garner support and information invaluable to their diagnosis and treatment. She has been recognized in Forbes Magazine, many newspaper and journal articles, and is a speaker at Cushing’s Awareness events. She is married to Tom and has a grown son, Michael.

Mary, I know the listeners would love to hear your story. What can you tell us about your symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment with Cushing’s?

Other Topics Discussed:

  • Why did you decide to start the cushings-help website?
  • What are some of the things that can be found on the site?
  • What are the message boards?
  • How many members are there on the boards?
  • How much work is involved in keeping up the site and the boards?
  • How are you doing now? What has happened since your surgery for Cushing’s?

Closing: As you can see, Mary is a survivor. Not only has she survived, but she has enabled so many others of us to survive, also. Please stay tuned for more stories from these survivors! For more information, visit the cushings-help website.

Keywords: adenoma, adrenal, arginine, arthritis, aspirin, awareness, cortef, cortisone, cortrosyn, Cushing’s, diagnosis, endocrine, energy, Forbes Magazine, gland, growth hormone, gym, insurance, kidney cancer, MaryO, menopause, migraine, nap, NIH, obesity, pituitary, Power Surge, rare, renal cell carcinoma, staticnrg, steroid, stimulation, support board, surgery, survivor, symptoms, thyroid, tired, transphenoidal hyposection, treatment, tumor, website, weight, Weight Watchers

Read Mary’s bio.
Listen to MaryO’s Archived Interview from January 3, 2008

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