What are pituitary tumours and how can they affect the way you see?

Heard of the pituitary gland? It's located just behind the bridge of your nose and is commonly known as the master gland because it controls several other hormone glands in the body.

Pituitary tumours arise from the pituitary gland. They are largely benign but can cause problems primarily in one of two ways: compression of surrounding structures such as the optic nerves, which can affect your vision, and overproduction of hormones that can lead to a host of medical conditions.

A diagnosis

According to Associate Professor Ang Beng Ti, a senior consultant at the department of neurosurgery at National Neuroscience Institute, the discovery of a pituitary tumour usually occurs when a patient has a pattern of vision abnormality that suggests compression of the eye nerves.

"The specialist will usually recommend an MRI scan, which can confirm the presence of this tumor. However, medical scans are commonly carried out for all sorts of reasons these days, so it is not uncommon for us to be referred patients with pituitary tumors that have been discovered incidentally," he explains.

He adds that the overproduction of specific hormones can also result in physical symptoms. In this instance, an endocrinologist [a doctor who specialises in diagnosing and treating hormone-related diseases] may order a MRI scan if they suspect a pituitary tumor to be present.

Multi-disciplinary treatment

Treatment for pituitary tumours typically involve radiation therapy and surgery either via the nasal passages or the skull, and modern neurosurgical units worldwide generally take a multi-disciplinary approach.

"It's a team effort involving neurosurgery, neuro-ophthalmology, endocrinology and radiation oncology. The neurosurgeon can now remove most of these tumours by means of an endonasal endoscopic approach in collaboration with the ENT surgeon," says Dr Ang.

And if you're wondering, pituitary tumors are not definitively linked to specific environmental factors so there is no recommendation to do more of, or avoid, any particular lifestyle habit.

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