Eureka 2019: A New Look at Pituitary Tumors

For the fifth year in a row, Endocrine News spoke with editors from Endocrine Society journals to get the scoop on the top endocrine discoveries of 2019. Here is part 8 of Eureka! 2019.

From April, “DNA Methylation of Tumor Suppressor Genes in Pituitary Neuroendocrine Tumors,” by Picó, A., et. al. was selected by The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism associate editor Anthony P. Heaney, MD, PhD, professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, in Los Angeles.

“Although pituitary tumors are very common, they are notable for the lack of traditional driver mutations found in other tumor types,” Heaney explains. The team of researchers used PCR to analyze the effect that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) methylation would have on expression of 35 tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) in 105 pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs). Effects varied with PitNET subtypes.

“This study adds to existing knowledge that epigenetic deregulation, including DNA methylation, histone modification, nucleosome remodeling, and ribonucleic acid (RNA)-mediated targeting, plays a causative role in pituitary tumorigenesis,” Heaney says.