According to the research by American Cancer Society, 1 out of 4 people are diagnosed as pituitary tumor without knowing it, because most of the tumors are benign and small, they seldom cause serious health problems. Based on the two-week research on the topic of pituitary tumor, which is a type of brain cancer, this paper is going to have a general introduction to the pituitary tumor, the diagnosis and symptoms, and some treatment options. Pituitary gland locates at the base of the brain and is right behind the eyes, it only weights about 0.5 gram. Although the pituitary gland is small, it is about 1cm3 big, which is similar to the size of a pea, it is known as the “master gland” because it is responsible for produce many different kinds of …show more content…
However, if the tumor produces an excess of a certain hormone, it will cause symptoms depend on which hormone is produced too much in blood. In contrast, macroadenomas are the tumors that larger than 10mm, and they can affect a person’s health by several different ways. Firstly, same as microadenomas, the symptoms will appear when extra hormones produced in the blood. Secondly, the macroadenoma may give pressure to the nearby nerves, especially for the optic nerves since the pituitary gland locates behind the eyes, and this will cause the loss of vision. Thirdly, when the tumor presses the normal part of the pituitary, this will cause a severe headache and vomit, or syncope if …show more content…
According to the cases from Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan, the results show some common functional pituitary tumors are prolactinomas, growth hormone tumors, ACTH tumors, and TSH tumors. Prolactinomas are the most common adenomas among these functional pituitary tumors, and hyperprolactin is one of the most obvious symptoms of prolactinomas. Prolactinoma will cause women to produce milk even they do not give birth to a child, menstrual cycle changed or even stopped, inability to get pregnant, and stimulate the breast develop in men, etc. The second most common functional pituitary tumors are the growth hormone tumors, and this will cause gigantism or acromegaly due to the excess of the growth hormone produced by the tumor. ACTH is stands for Adrenocorticotropic Hormone, and for ACTH tumor, the symptoms are basically the change on appearance. For example, a lump of fat on the back of the neck and weight gain in face and neck, but thin arms and legs are the two major characteristics of ACTH tumor. Last but not the least, the TSH tumor, which is thyroid-stimulating hormone tumor will cause weight loss, irregular heartbeat, and shakiness. In contrast, the non functional pituitary tumor has no real symptoms during initial stage, but it will cause symptoms by pressing the surrounding structures while the tumor is growing