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A Double Pituitary Adenoma Presenting as a Prolactin-secreting Tumor with Partial Response to Medical Therapy. Case report

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Abstract

Double pituitary adenomas are difficult to recognize pre-operatively as only a single mass may be appreciated on imaging. We present herein a giant prolactin-secreting pituitary adenoma in a middle-aged man that had responded partially to dopamine agonist therapy. The excised specimen demonstrated a double adenoma. The prolactin-producing one displayed the expected morphological changes resulting from medical therapy, while the other, a gonadotroph adenoma, did not. The failure of tumor shrinkage can be attributed to the presence of a double adenoma, a previously unreported cause of failure of medical therapy in prolactinoma.

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Acknowledgments

Drs. Kovacs and Horvath would like to thank the Jarislowsky and the Lloyd Carr-Harris Foundations for their continued financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Trillium Health Centre, Mississauga, ON, Canada

    Claire I. Coiré

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, Trillium Health Centre, Mississauga, ON, Canada

    Harley S. Smyth

  3. Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Trillium Health Centre, Mississauga, ON, Canada

    Dominic Rosso

  4. Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Eva Horvath & Kalman Kovacs

  5. Department of Pathology, Trillium Health Centre, 100 Queensway West, Mississauga, ON, L5B 1B8, Canada

    Claire I. Coiré

Authors
  1. Claire I. Coiré
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  2. Harley S. Smyth
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  3. Dominic Rosso
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  4. Eva Horvath
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  5. Kalman Kovacs
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Correspondence to Claire I. Coiré.

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Coiré, C.I., Smyth, H.S., Rosso, D. et al. A Double Pituitary Adenoma Presenting as a Prolactin-secreting Tumor with Partial Response to Medical Therapy. Case report. Endocr Pathol 21, 135–138 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12022-009-9104-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12022-009-9104-0

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