Could growth hormone play a role in Peutz Jeghers syndrome?

Convincing experimental data suggest that the growth hormone (GH)/insulin-like growth factor-1(IGF-1) axis plays an important role in cancer development and behaviour. Epidemiological studies have supported an association with cancer, but not with tumour induction per se, although this is a distinction that is important mechanistically but not clinically [1]. We report the case of a 17-year-old man with delayed growth of pituitary origin, treated with growth hormone, in whom a diagnosis of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) was subsequently made, and in whom, during the endoscopic follow-up, the number of polyps reduced dramatically, thus suggesting a role for GH in eliciting this disease.