What are pituitary adenomas?
Q: What are pituitary adenomas?
A: Pituitary adenomas are tumors that occur in the pituitary gland.
Q: How are pituitary tumors generally divided based on their biological functioning?
A: Pituitary tumors are generally divided into three kinds dependent upon their biological functioning: benign adenoma, invasive adenoma, or carcinomas with carcinomas accounting for 0.1% to 0.2%, approximately 35% being invasive adenomas and most being benign adenomas.
Q: What percentage of brain tumors do pituitary adenomas represent?
A: Pituitary adenomas represent from 10% to 25% of all brain tumors.
Q: What percentage of the general population is thought to be affected by clinically active pituitary adenomas?
A: Recent studies have suggested that clinically active pituitary adenomas may affect about one in 1000 of the general population.
Q: What are the two types of pituitary adenomas based on their size?
A: Adenomas that are bigger than 10 millimetres (0.39 in) are called macroadenomas, and those smaller than 10 mm are called microadenomas.
Q: What are non-invasive and non-secreting pituitary adenomas considered to be?
A: Non-invasive and non-secreting pituitary adenomas are considered to be benign, which means harmless.
Q: Are there any studies that have proven non-invasive and non-secreting pituitary adenomas to be harmless?
A: A recent large study (Fernández-Balsells, et al. 2011) has shown there are few studies to prove if this is true or not.
