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A pineal gland cyst is a usually benign (non-malignant) cyst in the pineal gland, a small endocrine gland in the brain. Historically, these fluid-filled bodies appeared on 1-4% of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans, but were more frequently diagnosed at death, seen in 4-11% of autopsies. [ 1 ]
Pineocytoma, is a rare, benign, slowly growing tumor of the pineal gland. The pineal gland is a small endocrine gland close to the center of the brain that secretes melatonin into the bloodstream. Pineocytomas can cause pressure and fluid build-up in the brain. They are more common in adults.
The human pineal gland grows in size until about 1–2 years of age, remaining stable thereafter, [20] [21] although its weight increases gradually from puberty onwards. [ 22 ] [ 23 ] The abundant melatonin levels in children are believed to inhibit sexual development, and pineal tumors have been linked with precocious puberty .
Factors other than obesity, however, perhaps genetic and/or environmental ones, are needed to explain the higher prevalence of early puberty in black versus white girls." [ 18 ] While more girls are increasingly entering puberty at younger ages, new research indicates that some boys are actually starting later ( delayed puberty ).
I'd like to clarify that a cyst is not a tumor. It is my understanding that a cyst is fluid filled, whereas a tumor is a solid mass. As for the pineal gland cyst, most are asymptomatic - in other words, individuals lead normal lives with none of those symptoms described by in this article. Right now, there are no known causes of pineal gland cysts.
They normally take over the neuraxis, the axis of the central nervous system that determines how the nervous system is placed, which allows the cysts to infiltrate the CNS tissues. [3] They are most commonly found in the area near the pineal gland , the chiasmatic cistern , and the cerebellopontine angle space.
The pineal gland is a small organ in the center of the brain that is responsible for controlling melatonin secretion. [2] Several tumors can occur in the area of the pineal gland, with the most aggressive being pineoblastoma. Pineoblastomas arise from embryonal cells in the pineal gland and are rapidly growing.
Papillary tumors of pineal region are extremely rare, constituting 0.4-1% of all central nervous system tumors. [3] These tumors most commonly occur in adults with the mean age being 31.5. There have been cases reported for people between the ages 5 to 66 years. There is a slight predominance of females who have these tumors. [13] [9]