Pituitary Adenoma

Pituitary Adenoma

Pituitary adenomas are noncancerous tumors that occur in the pituitary gland. Pituitary adenomas are generally divided into three categories dependant upon their biological functioning: benign adenoma, invasive adenoma or carcinomas, with carcinomas accounting for 0.1% to 0.2%, appoximately 35% being invasive adenomas and most being benign adenomas. Pituitary adenomas represent from 10% to 25% of all intracranial neoplasms and the estimated prevalence rate in the general population is approximately 17% to 25%.

Non-invasive and non-secreting pituitary adenomas are considered to be benign in the literal as well as the clinical sense; however a recent meta-analysis (Fernández-Balsells, et al. 2011) of available research has shown there are to date scant studies - of poor quality - to either support or refute this assumption.

Adenomas which exceed 10 millimetres (0.39 in) in size are defined as macroadenomas, with those smaller than 10 mm referred to as microadenomas. Most pituitary adenomas are microadenomas, and have an estimated prevalence of 16.7% (14.4% in autopsy studies and 22.5% in radiologic studies). A majority of pituitary microadenomas often remain undiagnosed and those that are diagnosed are often found as an incidental finding, and are referred to as incidentalomas.

Invasive adenomas may invade the dura mater, cranial bone, or sphenoid bone. Although previously believed that clinically active pituitary adenomas were rare, recent studies have suggested that they may affect approximately one in 1000 of the general population.