Making Breakthroughs in Pituitary Tumor Treatment

With roughly 10,000 pituitary tumors diagnosed in the United States each year, Dr. Daniel Yoshor, MD, and his team at St. Luke’s Health–Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center are revolutionizing the treatment of benign pituitary tumors to allow patients to get back to their everyday routine as quickly as possible after removal.

Pituitary tumors are a collection of abnormal growth cells on the pituitary glad, which is located between the nasal passages and the brain. Depending on the size and hormone production of the tumor, treatment for these benign pituitary tumors may include surgery, radiation therapy and drug intervention.

Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center utilizes a multidisciplinary approach that combines patient management protocol with a less invasive endovascular surgical technique during which surgeons enter through the nasal passage to remove the pituitary tumor.

The patient management protocol emphasizes patient education, early mobilization, and scheduled inpatient and outpatient endocrine assessments that have been shown to decrease hospital stay, complications and readmission.    

Read more about the Neuroscience team’s study regarding short-stay protocols.

Sources:

• American Cancer Society
• NCBI