Recurrence of chromophobe pituitary adenomas after operation and postoperative radiotherapy.

The rate of recurrence is reported in a prospective study of 56 patients (28 men, 28 women) with large chromophobe pituitary adenoma (with or without hyperprolactinemia). The surgical approach was transfrontal in 44 and transseptosphenoidal in 12 patients. Cryoapplication was combined with the transsphenoidal operation. All but one patient received postoperative pituitary irradiation. Altogether, 11 (20%) clinical relapses (10 men) occurred between 0.5 and 6 years after the transfrontal operation. Patients that relapsed had had larger tumors than those remaining in remission. Occurrence of the tumors appeared with a deterioration of the visual field defect in 9 patients. There were no differences in the degrees of hypopituitarism in patients who relapsed as compared to patients remaining in remission.