Application of stereotactic radiosurgery and radiotherapy in the treatment of Itsenko — Cushing’s disease

Abstract

Cushing’s disease is caused by a pituitary tumor which causes increased production of adrenocorticotropic hormone, leading to chronic hypersecretion of cortisol by the adrenal cortices. Endoscopic transnasal adenomectomy is the initial treatment of choice with the greatest efficiency for the treatment of the disease. However in the absence of remission or relapse of hypercortisolism after neurosurgical surgery, as well as in cases when surgical intervention cannot be carried due to medical contraindications to surgical intervention, radiation treatment is used as an alternative or adjoining therapy. In this literature review the efficiency of different radiation techniques (the conventional and the modern techniques), as well as possible complications of modern methods of radiosurgery and radiotherapy have been looked for.

Treatment of Intracranial Tumors With Stereotactic Radiosurgery: Short-Term Results From Cuba

“…SRS is currently used to treat patients with a variety of processes including cerebral vascular malformations (arteriovenous malformations or AVMs [ 15 ] and cavernous angiomas [ 16 ]), benign tumors (meningiomas [ 17 - 18 ], vestibular schwannoma [ 19 ], pituitary adenoma [ 20 - 21 ], glomus jugulare tumors [ 22 ], low-grade glioma [ 23 ]), and malignant tumors (metastasis [ 24 ], chordoma [ 25 ], high-grade glioma [ 26 ]). Other less common indications are Cushing's disease [ 27 - 28 ], epilepsy [ 29 ], trigeminal neuralgia [ 30 ], and movement disorders [ 31 ].…”