The Clinical Implications of DNA Characteristics in Human Pituitary Tumour Disease

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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.