On Cancer: New Information about Pituitary Tumor Care at Memorial Sloan-Kettering

Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s team of experts in the Pituitary Tumor Center is one of the most experienced in the nation in diagnosing and treating pituitary tumors. These common abnormal growths occur in the pituitary gland, a pea-size endocrine gland located in the center of the brain.

Explore our newly updated guide to pituitary tumors to learn about how we combine state-of-the-art diagnostics with surgery, radiation therapy, and medication to ensure that our patients receive the most-sophisticated care available.

Care from Our Team of Experts

Every patient receives personalized care from our multidisciplinary team of experts. When making an appointment, patients are often able to schedule a visit with three pituitary tumor specialists — an endocrinologist, an ophthalmologist, and a surgeon — in a single day, rather than having to see multiple doctors at different locations.

With the exception of prolactinomas, we treat most pituitary tumors with surgery. This includes ACTH-producing tumors, growth-hormone-producing tumors, TSH-producing tumors, and nonfunctional pituitary tumors.  

Among our powerful diagnostic and treatment tools is an intraoperative MRI scanner. The scanner enables our surgeons to rapidly and accurately capture images of the pituitary gland and surrounding structures during surgery, and to confirm that a tumor has been removed entirely while the patient is still under anesthesia.

Also, our surgeons are often able to perform a minimally invasive procedure known as transnasal transsphenoidal resection, in which we operate through an incision inside the nasal passage to remove various types of pituitary tumors, bypassing brain tissue and reducing the risk for neurologic complications and scarring.