Epidemiology of common and uncommon adult pituitary tumors in the U.S. according to the 2017 World Health Organization classification

Luz E. Castellanos, Catherine Gutierrez, Timothy Smith, Edward R. Laws, J. Bryan Iorgulescu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose: To examine the contemporary epidemiology of adult pituitary tumors with a particular focus on uncommon tumor types, using the 2017 WHO Classification of pituitary tumors. Methods: Adult patients presenting with a pituitary or sellar tumor between 2004 and 2017 were identified from the U.S. National Cancer Database, with tumor type categorized according to the 2017 WHO classification. Descriptive epidemiological statistics were evaluated and reported for all pituitary tumor types and subtypes. Results: 113,349 adults with pituitary tumors were identified, 53.0% of whom were female. The majority of pituitary tumors were pituitary adenomas (94.0%), followed by craniopharyngiomas (3.8%). Among pituitary adenomas, whereas 71.6% of microadenomas presented in females, only 46.7% of macroadenomas and 41.3% of giant adenomas did (p < 0.001). For craniopharyngiomas, 71.2% were adamantinomatous and 28.8% were papillary, with adamantinomatous tumors associated with Black non-Hispanic race/ethnicity (ORadj = 2.44 vs. White non-Hispanic, 99.9 %CI = 1.25–4.75, p < 0.001) in multivariable analysis. The remaining 0.7% (n = 676) of pathology-confirmed pituitary tumor types were composed of: 21% tumors of the posterior pituitary, 16% chordomas, 11% pituitary carcinomas (i.e. adenohypophyseal histology with metastasis; herein most frequently to bone), 10% meningiomas, 8% germ cell tumors, 7% hematolymphoid (largely DLBCLs), and 4% neuronal/paraneuronal (largely gangliogliomas). Pituitary carcinomas and posterior pituitary tumors demonstrated a male predilection (62.2% and 56.0%, respectively), whereas sellar meningiomas predominated in females (84.1%). Age, race/ethnicity, tumor size, and overall survival further varied across uncommon pituitary tumor types. Conclusions: Our findings provide a detailed contemporary dissection of the epidemiology of common and uncommon adult pituitary tumors in the context of WHO2017.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)201-209
Number of pages9
JournalPituitary
Volume25
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2022
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Craniopharyngioma
  • Epidemiology
  • Pituitary adenoma
  • Pituitary carcinoma
  • Pituitary tumor
  • Tumor of the posterior pituitary

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
  • Endocrinology

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