E-cadherin expression is associated with somatostatin analogue response in acromegaly

Acromegaly is a rare disease resulting from hypersecretion of growth hormone (GH) and insulin‐like growth factor 1 (IGF1) typically caused by pituitary adenomas, which is associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Somatostatin analogues (SSAs) represent the primary medical therapy for acromegaly and are currently used as first‐line treatment or as second‐line therapy after unsuccessful pituitary surgery. However, a considerable proportion of patients do not adequately respond to SSAs treatment, and therefore, there is an urgent need to identify biomarkers predictors of response to SSAs. The aim of this study was to examine E‐cadherin expression by immunohistochemistry in fifty‐five GH‐producing pituitary tumours and determine the potential association with response to SSAs as well as other clinical and histopathological features. Acromegaly patients with tumours expressing low E‐cadherin levels exhibit a worse response to SSAs. E‐cadherin levels are associated with GH‐producing tumour histological subtypes. Our results indicate that the immunohistochemical detection of E‐cadherin might be useful in categorizing acromegaly patients based on the response to SSAs.
This work was supported by grants from the ISCIII‐Subdirección General de Evaluación y Fomento de la Investigación co‐funded with Fondos FEDER (PI13/02043 to A.S‐M. and PI16/00175 to A.S‐M. and D.A.C), Junta de Andalucía (A‐0023‐2015, A‐0003‐2016 to A.S‐M, CTS‐1406, BIO‐0139 to J.P.C. and R.M.L.) and CIBERobn. CIBER is an initiative of Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad, Spain. D.A.C. was supported by a research contract from the “Nicolás Monardes” program of the Andalusian Ministry of Health (C‐0015‐2014). Part of the analyses included in this study was carried out within the REMAH (“Spanish molecular registry of pituitary adenomas”) project, supported by Novartis Oncology as well as by the Andalusian and Spanish Societies of Endocrinology and Nutrition (SAEDYN and SEEN, respectively).