How are pituitary tumors classified? What are the types of pituitary tumors?

Pituitary tumor is a disease that occurs more often in men than in women. Pituitary tumors can be classified from different perspectives. It mainly includes clinical classification, imaging classification, and pathological classification. Clinical classification is divided into functional pituitary tumors and non-functional tumors. Imaging classification is divided into microadenomas and macroadenomas. Pathological classification is divided into chromophobe cells and chromophilic cells.

Pituitary tumors are a group of tumors composed of residual cells of the anterior and posterior pituitary glands and craniopharyngeal epithelium. About 10% of intracranial tumors have obvious clinical symptoms, and the incidence rate in men is slightly higher than that in women. Different clinical departments have different classifications of pituitary tumors. Let's take a look at how pituitary tumors are classified.

① Clinical classification: Pituitary tumors can be divided into functional pituitary tumors and non-functional tumors according to whether the tumor cells have the function of synthesizing and secreting biologically active hormones. Generally speaking, there are hormone granules in the cytoplasm of functional pituitary tumors. Generally speaking, there are hormone granules in the cytoplasm of functional pituitary tumors, but it cannot be said that tumor cells without hormone granules in the cytoplasm have no hormone secretion function, because tumor cells without hormone granules in the cytoplasm can still clinically manifest as acromegaly or Cushing syndrome, etc. Although some pituitary tumors are non-functional, they can synthesize the α┭ cavity of the anterior pituitary glycoprotein hormone;

② Imaging classification: Classification is based on imaging features. For example, pituitary tumors are divided into microadenomas and macroadenomas according to their size, the former being less than 10 mm in diameter and the latter being greater than 10 mm; intrasellar and extrasellar extended pituitary tumors; pituitary tumors are divided into invasive and non-invasive according to whether they are invasive or not. Although the vast majority of pituitary tumors are benign, because the pituitary gland is located in the narrow sella turcica, the growth of the tumor can expand above the sella turcica to compress the optic nerve pathway and the third ventricle, and can also erode the surrounding bone tissue;

③ Pathological classification: Using conventional tissue staining (eosin ┧ Zhangjue), due to the different affinities of various cells in the anterior pituitary for different dyes, the anterior pituitary cells can be divided into chromophobe cells and chromophilic cells. The former is not stained; the latter is further divided into eosinophils and basophils according to their chromophilic properties. Eosinophils can be stained into red cytoplasmic granules by acidic dyes such as eosin; basophils can be stained into purple cytoplasmic granules by basic dyes such as hematoxylin. Pathological classification is a postoperative classification and is not helpful for clinical diagnosis and treatment, while imaging classification can guide treatment decisions and help with the selection of surgical approaches.