PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Narrowing in on pituitary tumors

New technique to map hormone levels in near real-time could help surgeons detect and remove tumors with precision

2015-07-27
(Press-News.org) As many as 20 percent of people may have a benign cyst or tumor in their pituitary gland. The vast majority of pituitary tumors are noncancerous, but can cause headaches and profound fatigue, and can also disrupt hormone function. Currently, surgeons rely on radiologic images and MRIs to gather information about the size and shape of the tumor, but the resolution of such imaging technologies is limited, and additional surgeries to remove more of the tumor may be needed if a patient's symptoms persist. In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on July 27, investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) present a new technique that could help surgeons more precisely define the locations of tumors in near real-time.

The new strategy uses a visualization technique (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging - MALDI MSI) that can analyze specific hormones, including growth hormone and prolactin, in tissue. In the newly published study, the researchers find that it's possible to use MALDI MSI to determine the composition of such hormones in a pituitary sample in less than 30 minutes. This could give surgeons critical information to help distinguish tumor from normal gland.

"Our work is driven by a clinical need: we've developed a test specifically tailored for the needs of our neurosurgeon colleagues," said corresponding author Nathalie Agar, PhD, director of the Surgical Molecular Imaging Laboratory in the Department of Neurosurgery at BWH. "A surgeon may sacrifice half of the pituitary gland in an effort to get the tumor out. Without a tool to distinguish healthy tissue from tumor, it's hard to know in real-time if the surgery was a success. With this technology, in under 30 minutes a surgeon will be able to know if a sample contains normal pituitary tissue or a pituitary tumor."

"Patients show up with the clinical symptoms of a pituitary tumor, but the tumor itself may not be visible on an MRI," said co-author Edward Laws, MD, director of the Pituitary and Neuroendocrine Center at BWH. "This technique, which maps out where excess concentrations of hormone levels are located, has the potential to allow us to confirm that we've removed the abnormal tissue."

"Evaluating whether a piece of pituitary tissue is abnormal can be challenging on frozen section," said co-author Sandro Santagata, MD, PhD, of BWH's Department of Pathology. "This approach has wonderful potential for enhancing our diagnostic capabilities. It is clearly an important step toward providing intra-operative molecular characterization of pituitary tissues."

To test the technique, the research team analyzed hormone levels in 45 pituitary tumors and six normal pituitary gland samples, finding a distinct protein signature unique to the normal or tumor sample.

Mass spectrometry, a technique for measuring chemicals present in a sample, is currently used in the operating room to help inform clinical decisions, but up until now, the focus has been on small molecules - metabolites, fatty acids and lipids - using a different type of approach. By analyzing proteins, MALDI MSI offers a way to visualize hormone levels.

Current methods used to detect hormone levels take too long to fit the time constraints of surgical intervention. Surgeons must either remove a larger amount of potentially healthy pituitary gland or perform follow up surgery if the tumor has not been fully removed.

"We're hoping that techniques like this one will help move the field toward more precise surgery: surgery that not only removes all of the tumor but also preserves the healthy tissue as much as possible," said Agar.

In the next phase of their work, Agar and her colleagues plan to test out the technique in BWH's AMIGO suite and analyze the impact of the technique on clinical decision making.

INFORMATION:

Other researchers who contributed to this study include David Calligaris, Daniel R. Feldman, Isaiah Norton, Olutayo Olubiyi, Armen N. Changelian, Revaz Machaidze, Matthew L. Vestal and Ian F. Dunn.

This work was funded in part by US National Institute of Health (NIH) Director's New Innovator Award (1DP2OD007383-01 to N.Y.R.A.), U.S. Army Medical Research/CIMIT (2010A052245), the National Center for Image Guided Therapy grant P41RR019703, NIH K08NS064168, the Pediatric Low Grade Astrocytoma Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Brain Science Foundation and the Daniel E. Ponton fund for the Neurosciences at BWH.

Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is a 793-bed nonprofit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a founding member of Partners HealthCare. BWH has more than 4.2 million annual patient visits, nearly 46,000 inpatient stays and employs nearly 16,000 people. The Brigham's medical preeminence dates back to 1832, and today that rich history in clinical care is coupled with its national leadership in patient care, quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, and its dedication to research, innovation, community engagement and educating and training the next generation of health care professionals. Through investigation and discovery conducted at its Brigham Research Institute (BRI), BWH is an international leader in basic, clinical and translational research on human diseases, more than 1,000 physician-investigators and renowned biomedical scientists and faculty supported by nearly $600 million in funding. For the last 25 years, BWH ranked second in research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) among independent hospitals. BWH continually pushes the boundaries of medicine, including building on its legacy in transplantation by performing a partial face transplant in 2009 and the nation's first full face transplant in 2011. BWH is also home to major landmark epidemiologic population studies, including the Nurses' and Physicians' Health Studies and the Women's Health Initiative as well as the TIMI Study Group, one of the premier cardiovascular clinical trials groups. For more information, resources and to follow us on social media, please visit BWH's online newsroom.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Greenhouse gas source underestimated from the US Corn Belt, University of Minnesota-led study shows

2015-07-27
Estimates of how much nitrous oxide, a significant greenhouse gas and stratospheric ozone-depleting substance, is being emitted in the central United States have been too low by as much as 40 percent, a new study led by University of Minnesota scientists shows. The study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, measured how much nitrous oxide is emitted from streams in an agriculturally dense area in southern Minnesota. Agriculture, and specifically nitrogen fertilizers used in row-crop farming, is a major contributor to nitrous ...

Mobile stroke treatment units may greatly improve survival rates, chance of recovery for ischemic stroke patients

2015-07-27
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - July 27, 2015 - Two new studies presented today at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery 12th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, report that Mobile Stroke Treatment Units (MSTUs) can significantly reduce the time it takes to diagnose and treat patients for stroke, greatly improving survival rates and enhancing a patient's chance of recovery. There are currently four MSTUs in use worldwide. Two are in Germany and two are in the United States (U.S.) - one in Cleveland and one in Houston. MSTUs resemble ambulances on the outside, but contain ...

Compulsory schooling laws could bolster free community college argument

2015-07-27
LAWRENCE -- Providing two years of free community college to qualifying students is expected to be a hot topic during the 2016 presidential campaign. President Barack Obama introduced the plan earlier this year, aimed at boosting educational attainment and workforce opportunities of thousands of students -- especially those from low-income families. Support for expanded education is not the purview of one party, however; President George W. Bush also frequently referenced the significance of two-year colleges. Tennessee and Oregon are offering free community college to ...

UW study shows how a kernel got naked and corn became king

UW study shows how a kernel got naked and corn became king
2015-07-27
MADISON, Wis. - Ten thousand years ago, a golden grain got naked, brought people together and grew to become one of the top agricultural commodities on the planet. Now, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have found that just a single letter change in the genetic script of corn's ancestor, teosinte, helped make it all possible. Publishing in the journal Genetics this month, UW-Madison professor John Doebley and a team of researchers describe how, during the domestication of corn, a single nucleotide change in the teosinte glume architectural gene (tga1) stripped ...

Improved survival of HIV patients facilitates heart disease research

2015-07-27
WASHINGTON (July 27, 2015) - The improved survival rate of HIV patients in sub-Saharan Africa due to effective treatment programs is increasing the ability of researchers in Africa to study the impacts of cardiovascular disease in HIV patients, according to a guest editor page published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. According to guest editor Pravin Manga, M.B.B.C.H., Ph.D., of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, like South Africa, have created highly active antiretroviral treatment programs ...

Some vaccines support evolution of more-virulent viruses

2015-07-27
Scientific experiments with the herpes virus strain that causes Marek's disease in poultry have confirmed, for the first time, the highly controversial theory that some types of vaccines allow for the evolution and survival of increasingly virulent versions of a virus, putting unvaccinated individuals at greater risk of severe illness. The research has important implications for food-chain security and food-chain economics, as well as for other diseases that affect humans and agricultural animals. The new research, which will be published in the Open Access journal PLOS ...

Some stroke treatments proven to reduce health care costs

2015-07-27
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - July 27, 2015 - Use of mechanical thrombectomy on qualifying stroke patients could result in major savings to the healthcare economy in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and other western countries with a similar healthcare structure, according to a new study presented at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery 12th Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The study, Developing an Interventional Stroke Service: Improving Clinical Outcomes and Reducing Cost and Delivering Great Cost Savings Benefits to Health Economy, conducted at the University Hospital of ...

Researchers uncover blood markers to identify women at risk for postpartum depression

2015-07-27
Postpartum depression is a debilitating disorder that affects nearly 20 percent of new mothers, putting their infants at increased risk for poor behavioral, cognitive and social development. Researchers know that the hormone oxytocin, which plays a positive role in healthy birth, maternal bonding, relationships, lower stress levels, mood and emotional regulation, also is associated with postpartum depression when a mother has lower levels of the hormone. A University of Virginia researcher and a team from several institutions in the United States and England have now ...

Simple procedure using a nasal balloon can help treat hearing loss in children

2015-07-27
For children with a common middle-ear problem, a simple procedure with a nasal balloon can reduce the impact of hearing loss and avoid unnecessary and ineffective use of antibiotics, according to a randomized controlled trial published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). It is very common for young children to develop otitis media with effusion, also known as "glue ear," in which the middle ear fills with thick fluid that can affect hearing development. There are frequently no symptoms, and parents often seek medical help only when hearing difficulties occur. "Unfortunately, ...

Research provides strong link between delirium and inflammation in older patients

2015-07-27
BOSTON - Delirium is an acute state of confusion that often affects older adults following surgery or serious illness. Now a study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) confirms that inflammation - an immune response that develops when the body attempts to protect itself from harmful stimuli -- plays a role in the onset of delirium. Published in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, the new study found that older patients with delirium had significantly elevated levels of the inflammatory marker ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Do sweeteners increase your appetite? New evidence from randomised controlled trial says no 

Women with obesity do not need to gain weight during pregnancy, new study suggests

Individuals with multiple sclerosis face substantially greater risk of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19, despite high rates of vaccination

Study shows obesity in childhood associated with a more than doubling of risk of developing multiple sclerosis in early adulthood

Rice Emerging Scholars Program receives $2.5M NSF grant to boost STEM education

Virtual rehabilitation provides benefits for stroke recovery

Generative AI develops potential new drugs for antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Biofuels could help island nations survive a global catastrophe, study suggests

NJIT research team discovering how fluids behave in nanopores with NSF grant

New study shows association of historical housing discrimination and shortfalls in colon cancer treatment

Social media use may help to empower plastic surgery patients

Q&A: How to train AI when you don't have enough data

Wayne State University researchers uncover potential treatment targets for Zika virus-related eye abnormalities

Discovering Van Gogh in the wild: scientists unveil a new gecko species

Small birds spice up the already diverse diet of spotted hyenas in Namibia

Imaging detects transient “hypoxic pockets” in the mouse brain

Dissolved organic matter could be used to track and improve the health of freshwaters

Indoor air quality standards in public buildings would boost health and economy, say international experts

Positive associations between premenstrual disorders and perinatal depression

New imaging method illuminates oxygen's journey in the brain

Researchers discover key gene for toxic alkaloid in barley

New approach to monitoring freshwater quality can identify sources of pollution, and predict their effects

Bidirectional link between premenstrual disorders and perinatal depression

Cell division quality control ‘stopwatch’ uncovered

Vaccine protects cattle from bovine tuberculosis, may eliminate disease

Andrew Siemion to receive the SETI Institute’s 2024 Drake Award

New study shows how the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus enters our cells

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy proves effective for locally advanced penile squamous cell carcinoma

Study flips treatment paradigm in bilateral Wilms tumor, shows resistance to chemotherapy may point toward favorable outcomes

Doctors received approximately $12.1 billion from drug and device makers between 2013-2022

[Press-News.org] Narrowing in on pituitary tumors
New technique to map hormone levels in near real-time could help surgeons detect and remove tumors with precision