PNA Highlights September 2023 | Pituitary Network Association - International non-profit organization for patients with pituitary tumors and disorders

PNA Spotlight: Dr. Manish Aghi

This month the PNA Spotlight focuses on Dr. Manish K. Aghi.Dr. Manish Aghi is a neurosurgeon specializing in brain tumors at UCSF Medical Center. He cares for adult patients with a wide range of conditions, including astrocytomas and anaplastic astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, glioblastomas, meningiomas and pituitary adenomas. As principal investigator at the UCSF Brain Tumor Research Center, his interests include glioblastoma angiogenesis, mechanisms of glioblastoma resistance to anti-angiogenic therapy and experimental glioblastoma therapies such as cancer-killing viruses.
Professor Aghi earned his medical degree and a doctoral degree in neurosciences from Harvard Medical School. He completed a residency in neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a member of the Society for Neuro-Oncology, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons and Pituitary Network Association. Among his honors are the Preuss and Mahaley awards from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, and the Ronald L. Bittner Award, Synthes Skull Base Award and Integra Foundation Award from the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.
His answers follow.

PNA Medical Corner: Pituitary Centers of Excellence

This month the PNA Medical Corner focuses on an article co-authored by several members and colleagues of the PNA: Drs. Chanson, Kaiser, Laws, van der Lely, and Melmed. It addresses a topic that PNA has sought to promote for decades: the designation of Pituitary Centers of Excellence, where patients can get highly specialized care

Pilot study to define criteria for Pituitary Tumors Centers of Excellence (PTCOE): results of an audit of leading international centers

News Articles October 2025

News Articles October 2025

When Cushing’s becomes cancer: metastasis or induced by radiation?

An article in Cushing’s Disease News looks at a study that examines the case of two women whose benign tumors associated with Cushing’s disease turned malignant. The question is whether they metastasized or if radiation could have induced the transformation. More info: https://cushingsdiseasenews.com/news/cushings-pituitary-tumors-rarely-aggressive-cancers/

Pituitary apoplexy: symptomatic vs asymptomatic

A study in the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience looks at the clinical profile of patients with and without symptoms of pituitary apoplexy. Symptoms include “headache, vomiting and cranial nerve palsies.” People without symptoms who suffered pituitary apoplexy had lower white blood cell counts and lower blood sodium levels. Read more: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0967586825005983

When a pituitary macroadenoma causes sepsis-like symptoms

A study on Cureus.com presents a case report where a woman was initially treated for sepsis but turned out to have a pituitary macroadenoma. Read more: https://assets.cureus.com/uploads/case_report/pdf/413034/20250912-112610-bm0ldk.pdf

Acute Sheehan’s Syndrome after post-partum pituitary hemorrhage

A case study presented on Cureus.com looks at the patient who gave birth, suffered a pituitary hemorrhage, and developed acute Sheehan’s Syndome and then pituitary atrophy eight months postpartum. Read more: https://assets.cureus.com/uploads/case_report/pdf/411201/20250914-401650-bm0ldk.pdf

October 2025 Research Articles

Pituitary tumors

A new and useful tool for differentiating prolactinomas from non-functioning pituitary adenomas: a pilot study of the cabergoline disconnection test.

Galliano SA, Stumpf MAM, Queiroz NL, Ferreira EHR, Craveiro FL, Gruetzmacher C, Silva GOD, Cescato VAS, Vellutini EAS, Cunha-Neto MBC, Batista RL, Glezer A.Einstein (Sao Paulo). 2025 Sep 15;23:eAO1694. doi: 10.31744/einstein_journal/2025AO1694. eCollection 2025.

The evolution and application of multi-omic analysis for pituitary neuroendocrine tumors.

Pugazenthi S, Pari SS, Zhang Z, Silverstein J, Kim AH, Patel B.Front Med (Lausanne). 2025 Sep 1;12:1629621. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1629621. eCollection 2025.

Limitations of MRI in differentiating solid and cystic components of craniopharyngiomas.

Karaalioğlu B, Öksüz NÇ, İpek V, Çakır A, Kahraman O, Özbek MA.Childs Nerv Syst. 2025 Sep 16;41(1):281. doi: 10.1007/s00381-025-06941-y.

Idiopathic Arginine Vasopressin Deficiency With an Incidental Non-functional Pituitary Microadenoma in an Elderly Diabetic Woman.

Krishna MSV, Babu DVSP, Singh M, Madhavan S.Cureus. 2025 Aug 13;17(8):e89995. doi: 10.7759/cureus.89995. eCollection 2025 Aug.

Cushing’s Disease

Changing face of Cushing’s disease over three decades in pituitary center.

Muradov I, Sahin S, Uysal S, Sulu C, Gunebakan P, Tunc A, Kocaman BB, Soltanova L, Gazioglu N, Tanriover N, Kadioglu P.J Endocrinol Invest. 2025 Sep 16. doi: 10.1007/s40618-025-02702-5. Online ahead of print.

Editor’s note: Dr. Gazioglu is a member of the PNA.

Update on Medical Treatment of Cushing’s Syndrome.

Dillon BR, Agrawal N, Schwarz Y, Dancel-Manning K, Tabarin A, Lacroix A, Hofland LJ, Feelders RA.Drugs. 2025 Sep 15. doi: 10.1007/s40265-025-02223-8. Online ahead of print.

Acromegaly

Metabolic Factors Related to Interpersonal Dysfunction in Acromegaly: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study in China.

Tagilapalli SK, Wang Z, Lu YL, Zhang G, Su W, Wu Z, Wang J, Rao Q, Wang H, He D, Mou Y, Yao S, Tie Y, Chen W.CNS Neurosci Ther. 2025 Sep;31(9):e70607. doi: 10.1111/cns.70607.

Imaging

Trade-Off Analysis of Classical Machine Learning and Deep Learning Models for Robust Brain Tumor Detection: Benchmark Study.

Tian Y.JMIR AI. 2025 Sep 15;4:e76344. doi: 10.2196/76344.

Hormonal health

Idiopathic hyperprolactinemia-associated hypogonadism in men presenting with normal testosterone levels.

Cheng X, Xiao Y, Deng Y, Chen Q, Wen X, Zhou E, Zhou H.PLoS One. 2025 Sep 18;20(9):e0332871. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0332871. eCollection 2025.

Evaluation of thyrotrophic and lactotrophic reserves in patients with pituitary dwarfism with and without empty sella turcica.

Geremia C, Geremia F.J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2025 Jul 21;38(9):904-914. doi: 10.1515/jpem-2025-0082. Print 2025 Sep 25.