Acromegaly is a rare, slowly progressive, acquired disorder that affects adults. It occurs when the pituitary gland produces too much growth hormone (GH). touchENDOCRINOLOGY were delighted to speak with Prof. Thierry Brue (Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France) about the current treatment paradigm for acromegaly and the latest therapies that are currently being developed.
The abstract ‘Management of Acromegaly: Novel and Emerging Therapies‘ was presented at the European Congress of Endocrinology (ECE), 13-16 May 2023.
Questions
- Could you please give us a brief overview of acromegaly? (0:18)
- What are the current treatment options for acromegaly? (0:42)
- What other therapies are currently being developed for the treatment of acromegaly? (1:48)
- What are the key take-home messages from your presentation? (2:41)
Disclosures: Thierry Brue is a consultant for Pfizer, Ipsen, Strongbridge & Recordati and discloses grant/research support from Pfizer.
Support: Interview and filming supported by Touch Medical Media Ltd. Interview conducted by Shanice Allen.
Filmed in coverage of the European Congress of Endocrinology (ECE) Annual Meeting
Click here for more content on pituitary disorders.
Transcript
I’m Thierry Bruce from Aix-Marseille University, and Conception hospital in Marseille, France.
Could you please give us a brief overview of acromegaly?
Acromegaly is due to a pituitary tumour that is responsible for an excess of growth hormone, and this is a severe disease that affects patients a lot in terms of their facial and general appearance and induces also a lot of comorbidities.
What are the current treatment options for acromegaly?
The current treatment of acromegaly is in first line surgery, which allows us to normalize excess growth growth hormone in about half of the patients. So this gives room to a number of other treatment options for the other half of patients who are not treated by by surgery. And this includes several types of medical treatments, including long acting injections, that are considered the first line medical treatment. There are also other types of dopamine agonists or somatostatin receptor ligands that are being used in this treatment in this disease and also, drugs that try to counteract the actions of growth hormone in the periphery so, like, pegvisomant.
What other therapies are currently being developed for the treatment of acromegaly?
Currently, in addition to already available treatments there are a number of drugs that are being developed right now, mainly aiming at improving drug delivery and administration of the drug to make it easier for patients to have their treatment such as long acting forms or oral forms of octreotide. Other types of somatostatin receptor ligands are being developed and also new drugs addressing the action of growth hormone in the periphery are also being developed. So we are expecting these different drugs that are in different steps of development right now.
What are the key take-home messages from your presentation?
The main lesson from the different treatment options that are being developed right now is that we have a number of different tools available and we need to adjust these treatment options to each patient. So personalized medicine, so called precision medicine is an an important step forward in this adjustment.
Subtitles and transcript are autogenerated.
