Background: Intracranial lesions of the pituitary gland are common pituitary adenomas, accounting for 6-10% of all symptomatic intracranial tumors. In this retrospective study, the clinicopathologic features and survival rate of pituitary adenomas were evaluated.
Methods: The present retrospective study was conducted on 83 patients with pituitary adenomas, referring to radiation oncology departments of Ghaem and Omid Hospitals, Mashhad, Iran, over a period of 13 years (1999-2012). Data obtained from clinical records including clinical features, type of surgery (if performed), treatment modality, overall survival rate, and progression-free survival rate were analyzed.
Results: Eighty-three patients including 44 males (53%) and 39 females (47%) participated in this study. The median age was 40 years (age range: 10-69 years). Chiasm compression was reported in 62 patients (74.4%), and 45.78% of the subjects suffered from headaches. Functional and non-functional adenomas were reported in 44 (53.01%) and 39 (46.99%) patients, respectively. In cases with functional and non-functional adenomas, the disease was controlled in 95 and 84.5% of the subjects for 3 years, respectively. Furthermore, 1- and 3-year survival rates for functional adenoma were 84.6 and 23%, respectively; the corresponding values were 90.9 and 22.7% in non-functional adenomas, respectively.
Conclusion: In this study, a significant correlation between headache severity and type of adenoma was observed. So, application of surgery and radiotherapy together could be a highly effective approach for treating functional adenomas, although it is less efficient for the non-functional type.