Facilitating the adherence journey of children, adolescents, and adults on long-term growth hormone therapy.

Growth hormone deficiency in children and adolescents is treated with recombinant growth hormone injections, with the aim of helping patients reach a final height that falls within their genetically predicted adult height. While this treatment is very successful, overcoming issues of patient adherence is a challenge at each stage of the treatment journey, from early childhood to adulthood. An advisory board of senior endocrine nurses convened to discuss what strategies and tools work well in achieving adherence, and the best practices they identified-including the key strategies of choice, information, teamwork, and support-were presented at the 2016 meeting of The Endocrine Society. The advisers agreed that key steps to improve adherence include: patient/carer-centric endocrine nursing services, good-quality education and support, patient autonomy (where possible), broader treatment choice (in terms of device and self-injection), optimal follow-up from childhood to adulthood, and sharing of best practices.

Emergency and perioperative management of adrenal insufficiency in children and young people: British Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes consensus guidance.

Adrenal insufficiency (AI) is characterised by lack of cortisol production from the adrenal glands. This can be a primary adrenal disorder or secondary to adrenocorticotropic hormone deficiency or suppression from exogenous glucocorticoids. Symptoms of AI in children may initially be non-specific and include growth faltering, lethargy, poor feeding, weight loss, abdominal pain, vomiting and lingering illnesses. AI is treated with replacement doses of hydrocortisone. At times of physiological stress such as illness, trauma or surgery, there is an increased requirement for exogenous glucocorticoids, which if untreated can lead to an adrenal crisis and death. There are no unified guidelines for those <18 years old in the UK, leading to substantial variation in the management of AI. This paper sets out guidance for intercurrent illness, medical, dental and surgical procedures to allow timely and appropriate recognition and treatment of AI and adrenal crisis for children and young people.

Long-term mortality after childhood growth hormone treatment: the SAGhE cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Recombinant human growth hormone has been used for more than 30 years and its indications have increased worldwide. There is concern that this treatment might increase mortality, but published data are scarce. We present data from the entire dataset of all eight countries of the Safety and Appropriateness of Growth hormone treatments in Europe (SAGhE) consortium, with the aim of studying long-term overall and cause-specific mortality in young adult patients treated with recombinant human growth hormone during childhood and relating this to the underlying diagnosis. METHODS: This cohort study was done in eight European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK). Patients were classified a priori based on pre-treatment perceived mortality risk from their underlying disease and followed up for cause-specific mortality. Person-years at risk of mortality and expected rates from general population data were used to calculate standardised mortality ratios (SMRs). FINDINGS: The cohort comprised 24 232 patients treated with recombinant human growth hormone during childhood, with more than 400 000 patient-years of follow-up. In low-risk patients with isolated growth hormone deficiency or idiopathic short stature, all-cause mortality was not significantly increased (SMR 1·1, 95% CI 0·9-1·3). In children born small for gestational age, all-cause mortality was significantly increased when analysed for all countries (SMR 1·5, CI 1·1-1·9), but this result was driven by the French subcohort. In patients at moderate or high risk, mortality was increased (SMR 3·8, 3·3-4·4; and 17·1, 15·6-18·7, respectively). Mortality was not associated with mean daily or cumulative doses of recombinant human growth hormone for any of the risk groups. Cause-specific mortality from diseases of the circulatory and haematological systems was increased in all risk groups. INTERPRETATION: In this cohort, the largest, to our knowledge, with long-term follow-up of patients treated with recombinant human growth hormone during childhood, all-cause mortality was associated with underlying diagnosis. In patients with isolated growth hormone deficiency or idiopathic short stature, recombinant human growth hormone treatment was not associated with increased all-cause mortality. However, mortality from certain causes was increased, emphasising the need for further long-term surveillance. FUNDING: European Union.

Risk of Meningioma in European Patients Treated With Growth Hormone in Childhood: Results From the SAGhE Cohort.

Context: There has been concern that GH treatment of children might increase meningioma risk. Results of published studies have been inconsistent and limited. Objective: To examine meningioma risks in relation to GH treatment. Design: Cohort study with follow-up via cancer registries and other registers. Setting: Population-based. Patients: A cohort of 10,403 patients treated in childhood with recombinant GH in five European countries since this treatment was first used in 1984. Expected rates from national cancer registration statistics. Main Outcome Measures: Risk of meningioma incidence. Results: During follow-up, 38 meningiomas occurred. Meningioma risk was greatly raised in the cohort overall [standardized incidence ratio (SIR) = 75.4; 95% CI: 54.9 to 103.6], as a consequence of high risk in subjects who had received radiotherapy for underlying malignancy (SIR = 658.4; 95% CI: 460.4 to 941.7). Risk was not significantly raised in patients who did not receive radiotherapy. Risk in radiotherapy-treated patients was not significantly related to mean daily dose of GH, duration of GH treatment, or cumulative dose of GH. Conclusions: Our data add to evidence of very high risk of meningioma in patients treated in childhood with GH after cranial radiotherapy, but suggest that GH may not affect radiotherapy-related risk, and that there is no material raised risk of meningioma in GH-treated patients who did not receive radiotherapy.

Cancer Risks in Patients Treated With Growth Hormone in Childhood: The SAGhE European Cohort Study.

Context: Growth hormone (GH) is prescribed for an increasing range of indications, but there has been concern that it might raise cancer risk. Published data are limited. Objective: To examine cancer risks in relation to GH treatment. Design: Cohort study. Setting: Population-based. Patients: Cohort of 23,984 patients treated with recombinant human GH (r-hGH) in eight European countries since this treatment was first used in 1984. Cancer expectations from country-specific national population statistics. Main Outcome Measures: Cancer incidence and cancer mortality. Results: Incidence and mortality risks in the cohort were raised for several cancer sites, largely consequent on second primary malignancies in patients given r-hGH after cancer treatment. There was no clear raised risk in patients with growth failure without other major disease. Only for bone and bladder cancers was incidence significantly raised in GH-treated patients without previous cancer. Cancer risk was unrelated to duration or cumulative dose of r-hGH treatment, but for patients treated after previous cancer, cancer mortality risk increased significantly with increasing daily r-hGH dose (P trend < 0.001). Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) incidence increased significantly with longer follow-up (P trend = 0.001 for patients overall and 0.002 for patients without previous cancer). Conclusions: Our results do not generally support a carcinogenic effect of r-hGH, but the unexplained trend in cancer mortality risk in relation to GH dose in patients with previous cancer, and the indication of possible effects on bone cancer, bladder cancer, and HL risks, need further investigation.

Description of the SAGhE Cohort: A Large European Study of Mortality and Cancer Incidence Risks after Childhood Treatment with Recombinant Growth Hormone.

BACKGROUND: The long-term safety of growth hormone treatment is uncertain. Raised risks of death and certain cancers have been reported inconsistently, based on limited data or short-term follow-up by pharmaceutical companies. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The SAGhE (Safety and Appropriateness of Growth Hormone Treatments in Europe) study assembled cohorts of patients treated in childhood with recombinant human growth hormone (r-hGH) in 8 European countries since the first use of this treatment in 1984 and followed them for cause-specific mortality and cancer incidence. Expected rates were obtained from national and local general population data. The cohort consisted of 24,232 patients, most commonly treated for isolated growth failure (53%), Turner syndrome (13%) and growth hormone deficiency linked to neoplasia (12%). This paper describes in detail the study design, methods and data collection and discusses the strengths, biases and weaknesses consequent on this. CONCLUSION: The SAGhE cohort is the largest and longest follow-up cohort study of growth hormone-treated patients with follow-up and analysis independent of industry. It forms a major resource for investigating cancer and mortality risks in r-hGH patients. The interpretation of SAGhE results, however, will need to take account of the methods of cohort assembly and follow-up in each country.