Use of lanreotide in combination with cabergoline or pegvisomant in patients with acromegaly in the clinical practice: The ACROCOMB study

Purpose

To describe real-world use of lanreotide combination therapy for acromegaly.

Patients and methods

ACROCOMB is a retrospective observational Spanish study of patients with active acromegaly treated with lanreotide combination therapy between 2006 and 2011. 108 patients treated at 44 Spanish Endocrinology Departments were analyzed separately: 61 patients received lanreotide/cabergoline (cabergoline cohort) and 47 lanreotide/pegvisomant (pegvisomant cohort).

Results

Patient median age was 50.8 years in the cabergoline cohort and 42.7 years in the pegvisomant cohort. Prior medical treatments were somatostatin analogue (SSA) monotherapy (40 [66%] patients) or dopamine agonists (7 [11%] patients) in the cabergoline cohort and SSA (29 [62%] patients) or pegvisomant monotherapy (16 [34%] patients) in the pegvisomant cohort. Across both cohorts 12 patients were previously untreated, and prior therapy was unknown/missing in 4 patients. Median duration of combined treatment was 1.6 years (0.1–6) and 2.1 years (0.4–6.3) in the cabergoline and pegvisomant cohorts, respectively. At baseline, median insulin growth factor (IGF)-I values were 149% upper limit of normal (ULN) (15–505%) in the cabergoline cohort and 156% ULN (15–534%) in the pegvisomant cohort, and decreased to 104% ULN (13–557%) p < 0.001 and 86% ULN (23–345%) p < 0.0001, respectively, at end of study (EOS). Normal age-adjusted values of IGF-I were obtained in 48% of lanreotide/cabergoline-treated patients and 70% of lanreotide/pegvisomant-treated patients at EOS. There were no significant changes in hepatic, cardiac or glycaemic parameters in either cohort.

Conclusion

In clinical practice lanreotide treatment combinations are useful options for patients with acromegaly when monotherapy is insufficient; particularly, the combination of lanreotide and pegvisomant in patients not controlled with either SSA or pegvisomant alone has high efficacy and is well-tolerated.