Primary hyperparathyroidism as first manifestation in multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A: an international multicenter study

• Main Authors: Louise Vølund Larsen, Delphine Mirebeau-Prunier, Tsuneo Imai, Cristina Alvarez-Escola, Kornelia Hasse-Lazar, Simona Censi, Luciana A Castroneves, Akihiro Sakurai, Minoru Kihara, Kiyomi Horiuchi, Véronique Dorine Barbu, Francoise Borson-Chazot, Anne-Paule Gimenez-Roqueplo, Pascal Pigny, Stephane Pinson, Nelson Wohllk, Charis Eng, Berna Imge Aydogan, Dhananjaya Saranath, Sarka Dvorakova, Frederic Castinetti, Attila Patocs, Damijan Bergant, Thera P Links, Mariola Peczkowska, Ana O Hoff, Caterina Mian, Trisha Dwight, Barbara Jarzab, Hartmut P H Neumann, Mercedes Robledo, Shinya Uchino, Anne Barlier, Christian Godballe, Jes Sloth Mathiesen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bioscientifica 2020-06-01
• Series: Endocrine Connections
• Subjects: primary hyperparathyroidism; multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2a; ret; medullary thyroid carcinoma; pheochromocytoma
• Online Access: https://ec.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/ec/9/6/EC-20-0163.xml
• ISSN: 2049-3614; 2049-3614

Objective: Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A (MEN 2A) is a rare syndrome caused by RET germline mutations and has been associated with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) in up to 30% of cases. Recommendations on RET screening in patients with apparently sporadic PHPT are unclear. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of cases presenting with PHPT as first manifestation among MEN 2A i ndex cases and to characterize the former cases. Design and methods: An international retrospective multicenter study of 1085 MEN 2A index cases. Experts from MEN 2 centers all over the world were invited to participate. A total of 19 centers in 17 different countries provided registr y data of index cases followed from 1974 to 2017. Results: Ten cases presented with PHPT as their first manifestation of M EN 2A, yielding a prevalence of 0.9% (95% CI: 0.4–1.6). 9/10 cases were diagnosed with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) in relation to parathyroid surgery and 1/10 was diagnosed 15 years after parathyroid surgery. 7/9 cases with full TNM data were node-positive at MTC diagnosis. Conclusions: Our data suggest that the prevalence of MEN 2A index cases that present with PHPT as their first manifestation is very low. The majority of i ndex cases presenting with PHPT as first manifestation have synchronous MTC and are often n ode-positive. Thus, our observations suggest that not performing RET mutation analysis in patients with apparently sporadic PHPT would result in an extremely low false-negative rate, if no other MEN 2A component, specifically MTC, are found during work-up or resecti on of PHPT.