Before New Year’s Eve, Ms. Tian, 42, noticed that her right breast was overflowing with white milk, and although the amount was not large, she soaked her underwear from time to time. Occasionally, her breasts would swell and hurt. The feeling was the same as she had breast-feeding more than 10 years ago, and she was afraid whether she had breast cancer.
After the New Year, she went to the First People’s Hospital of Hangzhou for a checkup and the breast ultrasound showed dilated breast ducts; she also had her lactogen index tested and found that the lactogen reached 120 ng/mL, which was much higher than the normal index. Finally, an MRI of the head showed a pituitary microadenoma, and the cause of lactation was probably due to an intracranial pituitary tumor.
Dr. Hao Wang, deputy chief of neurosurgery, said he encounters two or three pituitary tumor patients every month. “Pituitary tumors are tumors that occur in the pituitary gland and are one of the common neuroendocrine tumors, accounting for about 10-15% of central nervous system tumors and ranking third in incidence among intracranial tumors. Although the vast majority of pituitary adenomas are benign, they can cause hormonal dysfunction in the body. If the tumor is more than 3 cm in diameter, it will compress the optic nerve and cause hydrocephalus, etc.”
He said that pituitary tumors are divided into non-hormone-secreting and hormone-secreting types, depending on the type of hormone secretion. The non-hormone-secreting type, which usually occurs in people over 60 years old, does not secrete hormones, but only destroys the original normal cells of the pituitary gland, causing the normal hormone level to drop. They are most common in women of childbearing age.
“Prolactin-secreting pituitary tumors in women mainly manifest as amenorrhea, lactation and infertility. In men, the main manifestations in the early stages are reduced sexual function, such as decreased libido, impotence and infertility. At a later stage, men also experience fear of cold, scarcity of body hair, pallor, easy fatigue, and mental depression.”
Wang Hao said the clinical manifestations of pituitary tumors vary widely, and the departments where patients first consult are scattered, and they may go to endocrinology, neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, dermatology, orthopedics and masculinity. Some patients may go to multiple departments, but they may not receive proper diagnosis and treatment for a long time, which may delay their condition. Pituitary tumors can be treated by various methods such as surgery, drugs and radiotherapy to preserve the pituitary function of patients as much as possible, bring the elevated secretory hormones down to the normal range, and improve the quality of patients’ survival.