Objective: Drug resistance is the main limitation for dopamine agonist therapy with prolactinoma. Transsphenoidal surgery is an additional operation that circumvents this limitation. To characterize distinctive clinical features of resistant prolactinoma in different levels of Ki-67, a retrospective analysis of 423 patients who were diagnosed and surgically treated at Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University from January 2007 to June 2017 was performed.
Methods: Patients were subdivided into Ki-67≥3% group (High) and Ki-67<3% group (Low) according to Ki-67 labeling values.
Results: Tumors in the High group were larger (P=0.001), associated with more frequent headaches and dizziness (P=0.004), more visual impairment (P=0.008), more polyuria and polydipsia (P=0.029), and had a higher percentage of invasion (P=0.003) than patients in the Low group. However, the prolactin normalization rate in the High group was significantly lower (P=0.042). More frequent recurrence was observed in the High group (P=0.018).
Conclusions: These observations suggest the importance of investigating Ki-67 in patients with resistant prolactinoma. The treatment of resistant prolactinomas with higher level of Ki-67 is still a challenge.
Keywords: Ki-67; resistant prolactinoma; retrospective analysis; transsphenoidal surgery.
© 2020 by the Association of Clinical Scientists, Inc.