A patient-oriented review of pediatric pituitary tumors, their description, staging, and treatments. Pituitary tumors are tumors found in the pituitary gland, a small organ about the size of a pea in the center of the brain just above the back of the nose. The pituitary gland makes hormones that affect the growth and the functions of other glands in the body.
Most pituitary tumors are benign.
This means that they grow very slowly and do not spread to other parts of the body. This patient information summary covers several types of pituitary tumors. Another type of pituitary tumor, called craniopharyngioma, is covered in the patient information summaries on adult or childhood brain tumors. If a pituitary tumor is found, the pituitary gland may be making too many hormones. This can cause other problems in the body.