The Clinical Implications of DNA Characteristics in Human Pituitary Tumour Disease

Abstract

DNA analysis was performed in 29 cases of various endocrinological types of human pituitary tumours. The degrees of ploidy and proliferation, expressed as the proportion of cells in S phase, were determined. In 12 cases (41%) aneuploidy occurred. The proportion of aneuploid cells in these tumours was very high, in general around 95% measured. The aneuploid group of pituitary tumours showed a large variation of the percentage of cells in S-phase (range: 3.3–13.7%; mean: 8.3±5.3) in contrast to diploid tumours which showed a considerably smaller variation (range: 3.4–8.8 %; mean: 5.5±2.1). Tatients with aneuploid tumours had a mean age at operation of 42.8±11.1 years in contrast to 51.5±13.8 years for patients with diploid tumours. Aneuploidy occurred more frequently in tumours causing acromegaly with a concomitant secretion of GH and PRL than in other endocrinological types of tumours. Patients with aneuploid tumours had a mean case history of 2.9±1.9 years, as compared to 10.5±4.9 years for patients with diploid tumours. In many cases, tumours with an aneu ploid DNA pattern caused a high clinical activity of acromegaly.