pituitary tumour

pituitary tumour, most common cause of enlargement of the sella turcica, the bone cavity in the head in which the pituitary gland is located. There are two general types of pituitary tumours—hormone secreting and nonsecreting. There are five types of hormone-secreting pituitary tumours, named according to the cells that produce the particular hormone. They are corticotropin-secreting tumours (corticotroph adenomas), which cause Cushing disease; gonadotropin-secreting tumours (gonadotroph adenomas), which can cause ovarian or testicular dysfunction; growth hormone- (somatotropin-) secreting tumours (somatotroph adenomas), which cause acromegaly and gigantism; prolactin-secreting tumours (prolactinomas), which cause galactorrhea (abnormal lactation), menstrual abnormalities, and infertility; and thyrotropin-secreting tumours (thyrotroph adenomas), which cause hyperthyroidism. Of these hormone-secreting tumours, those that secrete prolactin are the most common, followed by those that secrete corticotropin and growth hormone; those that secrete sufficient gonadotropins or thyrotropin to cause clinically important hormonal abnormalities are rare. Occasional patients have a tumour that secretes two of these hormones, most often growth hormone and prolactin.

Hormone-secreting tumours constitute approximately 70 percent of pituitary tumours; the remaining 30 percent are nonsecreting (formerly called chromophobe adenomas because of their appearance when stained with a particular dye used by pathologists). Nonsecreting tumours cause symptoms when they become large enough to interfere with the production of one or more pituitary hormones or expand upward out of the sella turcica to impinge on the optic nerves or other brain structures. Virtually all pituitary tumours are benign and hence are adenomas.

Treatment varies according to the type of tumour. Patients with corticotroph, gonadotroph, somatotroph, and thyrotroph adenomas and nonsecreting adenomas are usually treated by transsphenoidal resection of the tumour, in which the sella turcica is approached via the nose and the sphenoid sinus, which lies just below the sella turcica. Surgical resection is effective treatment for patients with these tumours, although the efficacy of surgery decreases with increasing tumour size. The mortality rate of transsphenoidal pituitary surgery is low (less than 1 percent), and fewer than 10 percent of patients have adverse effects from the operation, which include deficiencies of anterior pituitary hormones, diabetes insipidus (excretion of large volumes of urine caused by deficiency of antidiuretic hormone [vasopressin]), postoperative infections, and leakage of cerebrospinal fluid into the nose.

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Patients with prolactinomas, including those with visual symptoms from the tumour, are usually treated with dopamine agonist drugs such as bromocriptine and cabergoline. These drugs effectively decrease prolactin secretion and tumour size. In addition to surgery, patients with somatotroph adenomas can be treated with analogs of the hypothalamic hormone somatostatin, given by injection, which inhibit growth hormone secretion, or with a drug (pegvisomant) that blocks the action of growth hormone.

Occasional patients with pituitary adenomas who have recurrences after surgery are treated with external-beam radiation; this is rarely used as initial treatment.