Context: The most frequent cause of endogenous hypercortisolism is Cushing disease (CD), a devastating condition associated with severe comorbidities and high mortality. Effective tumor-targeting therapeutics are limited.
Design: Search in PubMed with key words "corticotroph" and "Cushing's disease" plus the name of the mentioned therapeutic agent and in associated references of the obtained papers. Additionally, potential therapeutics were obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov with a search for "Cushing disease."
Results: At present, the tumor-targeted pharmacological therapy of CD is concentrated on dopamine agonists (cabergoline) and somatostatin analogs (pasireotide) with varying efficacy, escape from response, and considerable side effects. Preclinical studies on corticotroph pathophysiology have brought forward potential drugs such as retinoic acid, silibinin, and roscovitine, whose efficacy and safety remain to be determined.
Conclusions: For many patients with CD, effective tumor-targeted pharmacological therapy is still lacking. Coordinated efforts are pivotal in establishing efficacy and safety of novel therapeutics in this rare but devastating disease.