The cause of Cushing's disease

Cushing's disease is one of the most fascinating disorders in the whole of endocrinology, in which a minute tumour in the pituitary gives rise to a wh ole panoply of symptoms, signs and changes in mood and behaviour. Recent re search has begun to identify the molecular changes in these tumours underly ing the reduced sensitivity of the tumour cells to normal feedback regulati on and cell cycle control, which may eventually lead to specific gene thera py.