View clinical trials related to Pituitary Neoplasms.
Filter by:There are no available medical treatment options for patients with non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFPA) or with resistant prolactinomas to dopamine agonists (DA) who are not cured by surgery. The study of the receptors by quantitative mRNA expression levels and immunohistochemistry analysis might end with a better understanding of these tumors. Besides that, it will be assessed the in vitro and in vivo responses to pasireotide (for NFPA and prolactinomas) and cabergoline (for NFPA). These responses will be compared with the receptor expressions which may be a tool as a predicting element of the response to these compounds.
This project is the first comprehensive prospective study of clinically non-functioning pituitary adenomas (CNFAs). Two groups of subjects will be studied: Group I will consist of 100 patients with clinically non-functioning (CNF) pituitary lesions who are asymptomatic and do not require surgery; Group II will consist of 250 patients who have pituitary lesions that are symptomatic and require surgery. Patients will be followed with a series of endocrine laboratory testing, physical examinations, testing of quality of life and neurocognitive function before and serially over time either during non-surgical management or after surgery and in some patients before and after radiotherapy (RT). Data on pituitary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies and visual field testing being done over time during follow up as part of clinical care will be collected.
Pituitary adenomas is a very common disease, but the cause and genetics hasn't been identified. The investigators are going to use genome-wide association study to identify genes that may be related to pituitary adenomas.
Pituitary adenomas can cause compression of optic nerves and chiasm, which will lead to damage of vision. This study aims to evaluate the predictive factors for recovery of vision in patients with pituitary adenomas following trans-sphenoidal surgery.
The major purpose of this study is to evaluate the changes of multiple organs in patients with growth hormone-secreting pituitary tumors before and after surgery. Plasma, DNA samples and pituitary tumor tissues will be kept for further analysis.
Characterization of receptors present in non-functioning pituitary macroadenomas by Reverse Transcriptase- Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) would assist with targeted medical therapy based on the information obtained by immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR.
The purpose of this study is to observe predictors of pituitary tumor recurrence and markers of persistent disease activity in patients harboring pituitary mass lesions of all types.
The purpose of the study is to determine genetic links among blood-relatives and between spouses of patients with pituitary tumors.
The research is aimed at identifying new predisposition genes for endocrine tumours. Our focus initially is on pituitary adenomas including growth hormone-secreting tumors (somatotrophinomas) and prolactin secreting tumours (prolactinomas), but we wish to extend work to other pituitary tumour cases/families. The recruitment process will be as follows. 1. We will recruit patients from our own Endocrine outpatient clinics and inpatient wards. In addition we will ask colleagues in other Endocrinology Departments (or other specialties such as Clinical Genetics,Pathology, General Medicine ) to identify potentially suitable patients with endocrine & pituitary tumours from their records. We shall focus on patients with good evidence of inheritance of their condition: relatively early onset; or multiple lesions; or other affected family members. Conditions where the predisposing genes have been identified (principally MEN) will be excluded from study. Patients directly contacting us can also enter the study. 2. The Consultant looking after the patient will contact the patient to initially inform him/her of the study. 3. We will then contact the patient (generally by telephone) to discuss the study and what it would entail in terms of information and samples. 4. Subject to agreement in (3), patient will receive 'Information Sheet for patients with pituitary tumour' and 'Consent Form' and will have blood sampling in Consultant's clinic. 5. We will contact additional family members (if appropriate) after an initial approach by the family member already recruited to the study. The additional family members may have developed tumours similar to those of the proband, or may be unaffected individuals who provide useful information for gene identification purposes (for example, spouses may greatly aid the power of gene mapping by linkage. They will receive the "Information Sheet for family members". analysis). 8. Archival tissue will be obtained from HTA licensed tissue banks. This is an established bank whose licence is primarily for diagnosis but can be used for research. 9. We will undertake laboratory work, such as genetic linkage analysis, candidate gene mutation screening and studies of loss of heterozygosity in tumours, to identify the genes predisposing to the condition, such as the AIP gene. In addition we would like to screen other genes related to the chaperon AIP molecule, such as AhR, and other genes currently identified (PDE4A5, survivin and Tom20 protein) or may not been identified. Blood samples for DNA and RNA will coded with unique ID numbers. Pituitary and other endocrine tumour samples will be collected at surgery and kept in liquid nitrogen or -80 C. They will be coded with unique ID numbers. Candidate gene sequencing will be performed in the Barts and the London Medical School Genome Centre. RNA expression studies from blood or adenoma tissue samples will be performed by RT-PCR. Protein expression studies will be performed by Western blotting or immunohistochemistry. The first gene we wish to study causes familial acromegaly, a disease resulting from a pituitary adenoma secreting growth hormone. To establish if the candidate gene is also causing possibly sporadic (not familial) cases of the disease, samples (blood and tissue) will be collected from patients with sporadic disease and will be analysed as above.