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Review
. 2025 Aug;26(4):525-538.
doi: 10.1007/s11154-025-09957-6. Epub 2025 Mar 15.

Cancer screening in patients with acromegaly: a plea for a personalized approach and international registries

Luigi Demarchis  1   2 , Sabrina Chiloiro  3   4 , Antonella Giampietro  1   2 , Laura De Marinis  1   2 , Antonio Bianchi  1   2 , Maria Fleseriu  5 , Alfredo Pontecorvi  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Cancer screening in patients with acromegaly: a plea for a personalized approach and international registries

Luigi Demarchis et al. Rev Endocr Metab Disord. 2025 Aug.

Abstract

Acromegaly is a rare condition, and often diagnosis is delayed by several years, for most patients. Acromegaly is characterized by short and long-term respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidities, with possible impact on mortality. In the last two decades, life expectancy has progressively increased in part due to a reduction in biochemically active disease, multidisciplinary treatment approaches and a reduction in complications, and the availability of new drugs. Of note, a leading cause of mortality, cardiovascular comorbidity, has been replaced by cancer(s). As such, neoplasms more frequently observed (colon, thyroid, breast, prostate, and stomach) in patients with acromegaly are receiving increased attention. Chronic exposure to increased growth hormone serum levels may contribute to an increase in the occurrence and progression of cancers. Various efforts have been made to determine the pathogenetic mechanisms involved. However, there are no clear medical-related societal agreement(s) in relation to screening methods or timing regarding neoplasm(s) diagnosis in patients with acromegaly. Additionally, independent and dependent risk factor data in patients with acromegaly is lacking. International/national registries could help lay the groundwork to better study the impact of cancer(s) in patients with acromegaly and subsequently lead to and validate the most appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic path forward.

Keywords: Breast; Colon; Neoplasms; Prostate; Screening; Somatotropinomas; Thyroid.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Proposed flow-chart for screening of colon, thyroid, breast and prostate cancer at acromegaly diagnosis and during follow-up
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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