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Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Agonists Are Unsuccessful in Reducing Tumoral Gonadotropin Secretion in Two Patients With Gonadotropin-Secreting Pituitary Adenomas

Centre de Medecine Nucleaire, Hôpital Louis Pradel (G.S., B.C.), Clinique Endocrinologique, Hôpital de L’Antiquaille (H.L.), Laboratoire d’Histologie-Embryologie, Faculté A. Carrel and INSERM U34, Hôpital Debrousse (M.G.F., B.L.) Lyon; France
Fondation de Recherche en Hormonologie (N.L.) Fresnes, France

Address requests for reprints to: Dr. Genevieve Sassolas, Centre de Medicine Nucleaire, Hopital Louis Pradel, 59 boulevard Pinrel, Lyon Cedex 03 69394, France.

Whether GnRH agonist treatment leads to reduced gonadotropin secretion and tumor volume in patients with gonadotropin-secreting pituitary adenomas is controversial. We studied the effect of GnRH analog treatment in two such patients, one with a recurrent FSH- and LH-secreting pituitary adenoma (patient 1) and one with a recurrent FSH- and -subunit-secreting pituitary adenoma (patient 2). Patient 1 was treated with 200 µg Buserelin daily for 65 days, and patient 2 received three injections of 3 mg [D-Trp⁶]-LHRH formulated in microcapsules at 21-day intervals. In both patients, plasma FSH, LH (RIA), and -subunit concentrations increased initially and remained above the pretreatment values throughout the treatment period. Plasma LH, measured by immunoradiometric assay, remained well above the detection limit. Plasma bioactive LH and testosterone became undetectable in patient 2, but did not change in patient 1. In neither patient did pituitary tumor size (determined by computed tomographic scan) change during treatment. We conclude that 1) the overall effect of GnRH analogs in patients with gonadotroph cell adenomas is stimulation of gonadotropin release by the tumor, although LH release varies according to how plasma LH is measured, possibly related to the origin of the hormone (normal or tumor gonadotroph cells), and 2) GnRH analog treatment does not reduce tumor size

Received April 13, 1987.

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