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The five-year relative survival rate for all pituitary tumors is 97 percent, while the five-year relative survival rate for patients with cancerous pituitary gland tumors is above 81 percent.
Pituitary tumors are unusual growths that develop in the pituitary gland. This gland is an organ about the size of a pea. It's located behind the nose at the base of the brain. Some of these tumors cause the pituitary gland to make too much of certain hormones that control important body functions.
Pituitary tumors are very rarely cancer. They don’t grow very large or spread to other parts of the body. But pituitary tumors can still cause health problems, for 2 main reasons: Some tumors make too much of a certain hormone. This can make it hard for the body to work the way it should.
Surgery to remove a pituitary tumor might damage the pituitary gland. That can limit its ability to make hormones, leading to other medical problems including diabetes insipidus. This condition happens when the pituitary gland cannot make enough of the hormone vasopressin.
According to recent statistics from Cancer.Net, pituitary gland tumors will affect about 13,870 Americans accounting for around 17% of all primary brain tumors. Prognosis of pituitary tumors refers to a doctor's estimate of the likely course and outcome of a person's illness.
If you have a pituitary gland tumour, you may have questions about your prognosis. A prognosis is the doctor’s best estimate of how a tumour will affect someone and how it will respond to treatment. Prognosis and survival depend on many factors.
More than 10,000 pituitary tumors are diagnosed each year in the United States. Almost all of these tumors are benign (pituitary adenomas). Very few pituitary tumors are cancers (pituitary carcinomas).