A New Treatment for an Old Disease

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The disfigurement of acromegaly did not escape notice in ancient times. Its association with pituitary tumors was recognized by Pierre Marie a century ago, and its association with growth hormone hypersecretion was described by Herbert M. Evans and Harvey Cushing in the 1930s and 1940s. Although the usual cause of this condition is a pituitary somatotrope tumor, ectopic secretion of growth hormone—releasing hormone by islet-cell and carcinoid tumors and by some hypothalamic tumors can result in somatotrope hyperplasia and neoplasia.1 These cases appear to be rare and account for less than 1 per cent of the cases of acromegaly encountered. . . .