Growth hormone replacement therapy doesn’t appear to lead to relapse of glioma

A statistically significant increase in the risk of relapse for pediatric midline low-grade pediatric glioma (LGG) was not found in patients treated with growth hormone replacement therapy (GHRT), according to a study. However, additional studies are still needed to confirm these findings.

Growth hormone deficiency is common in children with LGG.

In this bicentric retrospective study, 124 patients with LGG were included, of which 17 were supplemented with GH and 107 received no supplantation. Overall, 45.5% of patients relapsed and 4.9% of patients died. There were no deaths in patients receiving GHRT. A second tumor developed in 1.4% of patients overall, none of which had received GHRT.

Reference
Puvilland C, Villanueva C, Hemmendinger A, et al. Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy Seems to Be Safe in Children with Low-Grade Midline Glioma: A Series of 124 Cases with Review of the Literature. Cancers (Basel). 2022;15(1):55. doi: 10.3390/cancers15010055. PMID: 36612052.