Reetobrata Basu, Cesar L Boguszewski, John J Kopchick
Endocrine Reviews, First published online December 5, 2024, bnae030
https://doi.org/10.1210/endrev/bnae030
Abstract
Growth hormone (GH) is a pituitary-derived endocrine hormone required for normal postnatal growth and development. Hypo- or hypersecretion of endocrine GH results in 2 pathologic conditions, namely GH deficiency (GHD) and acromegaly. Additionally, GH is also produced in nonpituitary and tumoral tissues, where it acts rather as a cellular growth factor with an autocrine/paracrine mode of action. An increasingly persuasive and large body of evidence over the last 70 years concurs that GH action is implicit in escalating several cancer-associated events, locally and systemically. This pleiotropy of GH’s effects is puzzling, but the association…