Biomarkers of acromegaly

Excerpt

The papers of Kiseljak-Vassiliades et al. [1] and Selek et al. [2] published in this issue are significant because they focus on an important and unresolved problem of pituitary tumor prognosis, progression, and treatment. Many years ago, pituitary tumors were classified based only on their tinctorial properties using the hematoxylin—eosin stain and were classified as acidophilic, chromophobe, or basophilic adenomas. At that time, blood hormone levels could not be measured and the clinical diagnosis was based on a simple classification, namely acromegaly, gigantism, Cushing’s disease, or endocrinologically inactive tumors. The introduction of immunohistochemistry (IHC) and electron microscopy (EM) resulted in revolutionary changes in the understanding of pituitary tumors. Blood hormone levels became possible to measure and correlate the clinical findings with the results of hormone measurements and morphology. …