Can drugs cure pituitary tumors?

Many people who have pituitary tumors are particularly concerned about whether drugs can cure pituitary tumors, because most people think that surgery is risky and painful, so everyone needs to know how drugs should be used to treat pituitary tumors. However, not all patients are suitable for drug treatment in clinical practice. How should specific drugs be used to treat pituitary tumors?

For growth hormone-secreting pituitary tumors, the main progress in the past 20 years has been the use of somatostatin analogs. The clinical application of this drug has significantly improved the cure rate of GH-secreting tumors. In recent years, long-acting somatostatin analogs such as long-acting octreotide and somadulin have been used in clinical practice, which has greatly improved patient compliance. The preoperative use of this type of drug can quickly reduce the patient's serum GH level, alleviate the patient's symptoms, reduce the size of the tumor, and create good preoperative conditions for complete surgical removal of the tumor.

Other indications for somatostatin analogs in GH-secreting tumors include: transitional treatment for patients with residual disease after surgery and patients whose GH has not yet been reduced to normal after radiotherapy. The use of growth hormone analogs provides an opportunity for preoperative preparation for patients with heart failure, sleep apnea, poorly controlled hyperglycemia, hypertension, and patients who cannot tolerate anesthesia. Somatostatin analogs have also achieved satisfactory therapeutic effects in thyroid-stimulating hormone-secreting tumors.

For pituitary prolactin-secreting tumors, more than 90% of patients (whether microadenomas or macroadenomas) can use dopamine agonists (short-acting preparations of bromocriptine, long-acting preparations of cabergoline) to control PRL levels and reduce the size of the tumor. Only those prolactinoma patients who are allergic or intolerant to such drugs, who have acute symptoms caused by tumor compression and need emergency surgery to relieve pressure, or who are unwilling to undergo surgical treatment, choose surgical treatment. During the treatment with bromocriptine, the dose of bromocriptine should be gradually increased until the serum PRL level drops to normal levels, and then the dose should be adjusted for long-term maintenance treatment.

Regardless of the type of treatment patients with growth hormone-secreting tumors receive, they should achieve the following treatment goals: eliminate the tumor, reduce tumor recurrence, achieve GH standards, relieve clinical symptoms, preserve pituitary function as much as possible, improve the patient's quality of life, and prolong the patient's life.