SSTR2 expression in neoplastic and normal anterior pituitary is impacted by age, sex, and hormonal status.
Publication Type | Academic Article |
Authors | Liechty B, Kim S, Dobri G, Schwartz T, Ivanidze J, Pisapia D |
Journal | J Neuropathol Exp Neurol |
Date Published | 04/22/2025 |
ISSN | 1554-6578 |
Abstract | Pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs) are among the most common tumors encountered in neurooncology. While the majority of PitNETs demonstrate indolent behavior, a subset of tumors demonstrates aggressive behavior, including invasion into surrounding structures. As traditional imaging has limited capacity to distinguish tumor from post-operative changes, better methods of tumor delineation are needed to guide management. Somatotroph adenomas are known to express high levels of SSTR2, and SSTR2-targeting PET imaging has shown clinical utility in the management of neuroendocrine tumors and meningiomas. In this retrospective study of archival PitNETs (n = 271) and autopsy controls (AC) (n = 20), we show that although significant differences in SSTR2 immunostaining are appreciable between adenoma subtypes and ACs, high-staining cases are encountered in all subtypes. In ACs, females demonstrated significantly stronger SSTR2 staining than males. Weak age-related trends towards increasing labelling in females and decreasing labelling in males were noted but these did not reach statistical significance. Decreasing age-related trends were seen in gonadotrophs in both sexes; this was statistically significant in females. Our findings suggest that SSTR2-targeting imaging modalities may assist clinical management of a subset of PitNETs and that these results may need to be interpreted with consideration of patient age and sex. |
DOI | 10.1093/jnen/nlaf034 |
PubMed ID | 40261909 |