Pituitary metastases epidemiology

Pituitary metastases are rare and account for only 1% of all operated pituitary masses ¹⁾ ²⁾ and <1% of all intracranial metastatic lesions. Most cases are asymptomatic and are incidentally discovered during an autopsy or in patients during the end-stage malignant course, and characteristic symptoms are reported in <20% ³⁾.

With the improvement of neuroimaging techniques and the increased survival of cancer patients, most cases of PM are generally diagnosed as a complication of disseminated malignancies with metastatic spread to other organs (80% of the reported cases). Only in 20–30% of the cases, PM is the initial presentation of an unknown primary tumor and precedes the diagnosis of malignancy ⁴⁾.

The majority of affected patients are diagnosed between the age of 45 and 74 years with a mean age of ∼60 years ⁵⁾ ⁶⁾.

¹⁾

Freda PU, Post KD. Differential diagnosis of sellar masses. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am. 1999 Mar;28(1):81-117, vi. doi: 10.1016/s0889-8529(05)70058-x. PMID: 10207686.

²⁾ , ³⁾

Komninos J, Vlassopoulou V, Protopapa D, Korfias S, Kontogeorgos G, Sakas DE, Thalassinos NC. Tumors metastatic to the pituitary gland: case report and literature review. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2004 Feb;89(2):574-80. doi: 10.1210/jc.2003-030395. PMID: 14764764.

⁴⁾ , ⁵⁾

Habu M, Tokimura H, Hirano H, Yasuda S, Nagatomo Y, Iwai Y, Kawagishi J, Tatewaki K, Yunoue S, Campos F, Kinoshita Y, Shimatsu A, Teramoto A, Arita K. Pituitary metastases: current practice in Japan. J Neurosurg. 2015 Oct;123(4):998-1007. doi: 10.3171/2014.12.JNS14870. Epub 2015 Jul 17. PMID: 26186025.

⁶⁾

Ng S, Fomekong F, Delabar V, Jacquesson T, Enachescu C, Raverot G, Manet R, Jouanneau E. Current status and treatment modalities in metastases to the pituitary: a systematic review. J Neurooncol. 2020 Jan;146(2):219-227. doi: 10.1007/s11060-020-03396-w. Epub 2020 Jan 13. PMID: 31933258.