Gamma knife radiosurgery for prolactinomas.

OBJECT: In this retrospective investigation the authors examined the results of gamma knife radiosurgery (GKS) for tumor remnants after unsuccessful open surgery and medical treatment in 20 patients with prolactinomas. Particular attention is paid to a possible radioprotective action of dopamine agonists similar to the action of octreotide in acromegaly.
METHODS: Twenty patients with prolactinomas were followed after GKS. Five patients were treated successfully; their prolactin (PRL) levels dropped into the normal range and dopaminergic drugs could be discontinued. Two spontaneous pregnancies were observed and 11 patients experienced improvement. Improvement was defined as normal PRL levels with the continued possibility of reduced medical treatment or a substantially reduced medical treatment dose with some degree of hyperprolactinemia maintained. The treatment failed in three patients who experienced no improvement. Patients treated with dopaminergic drugs during GKS did significantly less well in comparison with the untreated group when a cumulative distribution function (Kaplan-Meier estimate) was used.
CONCLUSIONS: The results of GKS for prolactinomas in this investigation are better than the results published by others. This may be an effect of case selection because there were no "salvage cases" in our group of patients. Because a dopamine agonist seemed to induce radioprotection in this series, it is suggested that GKS be performed during an intermission in drug therapy when the dopamine agonist is discontinued.