How long can a patient with a pituitary tumor live? People with pituitary tumors should avoid these foods

Speaking of pituitary tumors, everyone must be very scared. Pituitary tumors are indeed very tormenting, torturing people's body and mind. Optimistic people don't think too much and face it positively, but pessimistic people always worry about their illness. Patients with pituitary tumors are most concerned about how long they can live. How long can patients with pituitary tumors live at most? Let's talk about it below!

The pituitary gland is located in the middle of the brain and behind the eyes. It is the headquarters of the human endocrine system and controls the endocrine function of the human body, including blood sugar, electrolytes, height, male sexual characteristics such as beard, and female menstruation. When a tumor appears in the pituitary gland, the endocrine function will change, and the metabolism of the human body and the corresponding organs will undergo some pathological changes. This pathological change will bring some clinical symptoms. The tumor can wrap around the pituitary gland or grow out of the pituitary gland, squeezing the pituitary gland and causing abnormal pituitary function.

How long can you live with a pituitary tumor?

After scientific and reasonable treatment, long-term survival can be achieved. The survival period of patients with pituitary tumors depends on the severity of the patient's pituitary tumor symptoms, the success rate of surgical tumor removal, postoperative treatment, etc. Everyone is different, so it is impossible to give an accurate answer. Treatment of pituitary tumors, the current treatment method for pituitary tumors is comprehensive treatment, including surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy.

About treatment

1. Comprehensive treatment. The treatment of pituitary tumors mainly includes surgery, drugs and radiotherapy. Because there is no one method that can achieve the goal of complete cure, various treatment methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. An individualized treatment plan should be formulated based on the size of the patient's pituitary tumor, hormone secretion, complications and comorbidities, the patient's age, whether there is a desire to have children, and the patient's financial situation. The treatment of pituitary tumors is a comprehensive treatment process involving multiple departments.

2. Radiotherapy: Since pituitary tumors are adenomas, they have poor sensitivity to radiotherapy. After radiotherapy, 70% to 80% of patients experience decreased pituitary function, which reduces their quality of life. Therefore, radiotherapy is only suitable for patients with surgical remnants, those who cannot tolerate surgery, those who are insensitive to drugs, and those who have comorbidities and cannot undergo surgery or drug treatment.

3. Drug treatment: For pituitary prolactin-secreting tumors, more than 90% of patients (whether microadenomas or macroadenomas) can use dopamine agonists (short-acting preparation bromocriptine, long-acting preparation cabergoline) to control PRL levels and reduce the size of the tumor.

4. Surgical treatment Currently, surgery is the main treatment for pituitary tumors, supplemented by drug therapy and radiotherapy. Pituitary tumors are located in the sellar region, surrounded by important neural structures such as the optic nerve, internal carotid artery, and hypothalamus, so surgery still has certain risks. Current surgical methods include transsphenoidal, craniotomy, and gamma knife. Tumors with a diameter greater than 3 cm that are adhered to the optic nerve or impair vision can be treated surgically first. The surgery must achieve sufficient decompression of the optic nerve, and then gamma knife treatment can be performed after surgery. However, recurrence is still possible after surgery, so regular follow-up is required.

prevention

1. Postoperative complications Pituitary tumor surgery will affect the posterior pituitary gland, which may cause insufficient secretion of posterior pituitary hormone after surgery, which may lead to increased urine volume and even diabetes insipidus. Other complications include hypothalamic reaction, optic nerve damage, cerebrospinal fluid leakage, etc.

2. Review of some invasive pituitary tumors, which are very prone to recurrence. Patients need to be reviewed three days, one month, three months, six months, and one year after surgery to observe the dynamic changes in the surgical area and evaluate the efficacy of the surgery.

3. Postoperative radiotherapy: Generally, pituitary tumors do not require postoperative radiotherapy. Only some invasive pituitary tumors, which have residual or recurring tumors after surgery, require radiotherapy or gamma knife treatment.

Prognosis: A personalized treatment plan is developed based on the different needs of the patient. Ultimately, the patient's tumor can be removed, and during lifelong follow-up, the recurrence of the tumor can be avoided, the patient's pituitary function can be preserved as much as possible, the elevated secreted hormones can be reduced to the normal range, and the reduced pituitary hormones can be replaced to the normal range that matches the age, thereby improving the patient's quality of life and prolonging the patient's life.

1. Do not eat on the second day after surgery. If there are no complications such as gastrointestinal bleeding and dysphagia, you can eat a liquid diet. If diabetes insipidus occurs after surgery, it is recommended to eat a light diet, pay attention to hydration, monitor electrolytes, and prevent water and electrolyte imbalance. Patients with dysphagia after surgery should be fed liquid diet through a nasogastric tube.

2. Eat regularly and regularly, and eat regular meals. Do not eat or chew too hard. Keep your mouth clean before and after meals.

3. Stick to a low-fat diet, eat lean meat, eggs and yogurt regularly, eat more foods rich in vitamins A, C and E, and eat more green vegetables and fruits.

4. Eat foods containing anti-cancer ingredients, such as kohlrabi, cabbage, carrots, rapeseed, garlic, vegetable oils and fish.

5. After surgery, patients with pituitary tumors can also choose foods with high phospholipid content to improve the brain, such as egg yolks, fish, shrimp, walnuts, peanuts, etc.

6. You should also consciously choose foods that protect your eyes, such as eggs, animal liver, kidney, carrots, spinach, millet, cabbage, tomatoes, day lily, spinach, wolfberry, etc.

7. Avoid salted, smoked, grilled or fried foods, especially those that are burnt. Avoid sugar-free tobacco, alcohol, spicy, cold drinks and other stimulating foods and stimulating drinks such as coffee and strong tea.

8. When the patient's gastrointestinal function has not fully recovered in the early postoperative period, he should eat less milk and sugary foods to prevent excessive gas and intestinal bloating after digestion.