[Hypophyseal ACTH-cell carcinoma after several surgical interventions and radiotherapy]

A 56-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with headache, especially on the left temporal side, dizziness and exercise intolerance. She had been operated three times and radiotherapy once because of pituitary adenoma with intermittend hypercortisolism. The clinical examination was without abnormal findings apart from left temporal pain on pressure on the top of the skull.

Blood tests were entirely normal. At cranial magnet resonance imaging (cMRI) a left temporal tumor of 10 mm diameter was diagnosed.

The first histological study of the excized lesion could not clarify the diagnosis completely. Because of a local recurrent tumor of 20 mm, a second operation was necessary two months later. Due to structural and immunohistological similarities this tumor was identified as a metastasis of a pituitary ACTH-cell carcinoma. The patient was given adjuvant stereotactic radiotherapy. Two years after the treatment, no tumor recurrence was seen by cMRI.

Carcinomas of the pituitary are very rare. They can be diagnosed only by their metastases. The pathogenesis is still unclear. It is debatable, whether surgery and/or X-ray therapy in the past may influence tumor development.