[The treatment of Cushing's disease]

Abstract

The differential diagnosis of Cushing's disease remains difficult to establish. The selective transsphenoidal adenomectomy is the initial treatment of choice. In a group of 65 patients, 50 (77%) initially responded to surgery with correction of their hypercortisolism. Forty-three out of 51 (84%) patients with small pituitary tumors responded favourably to surgery, but recurrency occurred in 10% of the cases. Medical treatment with steroids inhibitors or antagonists is only an adjuvant treatment. In case of surgery failure or recurrency, bilateral adrenalectomy is usually performed. Conventional radiotherapy may be used after surgery in presence of macroadenomas or invasive adenomas. Correction of the hypercortisolism, after a second surgery, was achieved in 50% of the cases and was always associated with a panhypopituitarism.