Xie Chuanbo, Li Jiaoxing, Weng Zijin, He Long-Jun, Yin Shaohan, Zhang Jingwen, Zhang Jing, Sun Tao, Li Haojiang, Liu Yuying
State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Diagnosis and Therapy, Department of Cancer Prevention Research, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China.
Department of Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2018 Nov 19;9:643. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2018.00643. eCollection 2018.
To examine the morphological changes of the pituitary glands and linear growth of childhood nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cases who accepted radiotherapy. A total of 90 children (i.e., age less than 18 years) who were diagnosed as NPC at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from January 2009 to January 2016 were identified by reviewing medical records. Two radiologists reviewed and measured the pre-radiation, post-radiation, and the latest available pituitary gland heights independently. Patients' current height information was collected by telephone interviews. We compared the pituitary height differences using paired -tests and estimated the pituitary height trajectories within each sex by mixed regression models. Height-for-age Z-score was calculated for each patient using the WHO growth reference data for 5-19 years as reference. Most of the included participants were of male sex (75.6%) and over half were diagnosed at stage IV (58.4%). Among the 90 included participants, 89 had one repeated measurement of the pituitary height and 79 had two repeated measurements of the pituitary height. Seventy six of the 89 childhood NPC participants had reduced pituitary heights after radiation and accounted for 85.4% of the whole population. The means of the pituitary heights before and after radiotherapy were 6.4 ± 1.3 mm and 5.6 ± 1.2 mm ( < 0.001), respectively. The mean of height-for-age Z-score for childhood NPC cases was significantly below zero (-0.54, 95% CI = -0.74, -0.34). We concluded that childhood NPC cases had decreased pituitary heights and stunted linear growth after radiotherapy.
为研究接受放射治疗的儿童鼻咽癌（NPC）患者垂体的形态变化及线性生长情况。通过查阅病历，确定了2009年1月至2016年1月在中山大学肿瘤防治中心被诊断为NPC的90名儿童（即年龄小于18岁）。两名放射科医生独立回顾并测量放疗前、放疗后及最新的垂体高度。通过电话访谈收集患者当前的身高信息。我们使用配对t检验比较垂体高度差异，并通过混合回归模型估计各性别内的垂体高度轨迹。使用世界卫生组织5至19岁生长参考数据作为参照，为每位患者计算年龄别身高Z评分。纳入的参与者大多为男性（75.6%），超过半数在IV期被诊断（58.4%）。在90名纳入的参与者中，89人有一次垂体高度的重复测量，79人有两次垂体高度的重复测量。89名儿童NPC参与者中有76人放疗后垂体高度降低，占总人群的85.4%。放疗前后垂体高度的均值分别为6.4±1.3mm和5.6±1.2mm（P<0.001）。儿童NPC病例的年龄别身高Z评分均值显著低于零（-0.54，95%CI=-0.74，-0.34）。我们得出结论，儿童NPC病例放疗后垂体高度降低且线性生长发育迟缓。
