Conditions and Treatments

Pituitary Adenomas, including:

• Acromegaly
  
• Craniopharyngioma
  
• Cushing’s disease
  
• Non-functioning pituitary adenoma
• Pituitary cysts, including Rathke’s cleft cyst
• Prolactinoma
  
• TSH-producing pituitary adenoma

Our Approach

Patients are seen by neuroendocrinologists and neurosurgeons in the same visit at the same time.

Our team always considers all treatment options – surgery, medicine and/or radiotherapy – and maps out the safest and most effective plan for each patient.

Surgical Options

Our surgeons lead the world in their skilled use of these procedures:

• Transsphenoidal surgery: A treatment that goes through the nose and the base of the skull
• Microscopic surgery: A standard technique for transphenoidal surgery that uses a high-powered operating microscope to reach the tumor.
  
• Endoscopic surgery: A technique that uses an endoscope (a lighted optical instrument) to reach the tumor.
  
• Gamma Knife radiosurgery: An alternative method to treat tumors that aren't otherwise accessible.
  

Medical Therapy

Our doctors have advanced the use of drugs to help patients after surgery or to even replace surgery. 

Instead of surgery: For some patients, pills or injections may work better at controlling and shrinking a tumor.

After surgery:

• Pituitary tumors can interfere with the normal function of the gland, and medications may be needed to replace the hormones your body doesn't make.
• If the surgeon completely removes the pituitary gland, hormone replacement therapy provides supplements so you can live a normal life.
• If a tumor wasn't completely removed, medication can control hormone overproduction.
  

Radiation therapy: Used to treat residual tumor after an operation and to prevent tumors from returning.