Adrenal tumours: Expert insight on diagnosis and treatment

In this informative guide for patients, highly respected consultant endocrinologist Dr Bernard Khoo offers expert guidance on adrenal tumours, including how a diagnosis is made and when treatment is required.

What are adrenal tumours?

The adrenal glands sit just above the kidneys and they are very important hormone producing glands. Quite often, we diagnose adrenal tumours when people have scans of the abdomen which have been ordered because of stomach pain or other symptoms.

Adrenal tumours are incredibly common; about one in fifty abdominal scans includes an adrenal tumour. However, the important thing to realise is that most of these adrenal tumours are benign. In my role, I see patients with adrenal tumours and work to determine the following:

• if the tumour is truly benign and does not necessarily need surgery
• whether the adrenal tumours is producing hormones which can cause problems, such as hypertension (high blood pressure)

How common are adrenal tumours?

Adrenal tumours are pretty common. Studies tell us that around one in every fifty abdominal CTs performed shows an adrenal tumour. An abdominal CT is a type of scan that's taken through the abdomen and although not performed not specifically for the adrenal itself, these glands are often included in the pictures. Although we often see adrenal tumours, it’s important to realise that, in most cases, these tumours are benign (non-cancerous) and are not causing any problems.

How serious are adrenal gland tumours? Is treatment always required?

Most adrenal tumours are benign and don't necessarily need any treatment. First of all, we make sure that no treatment is required at all. There are a small percentage of adrenal tumours that do need treatment, for example, if the tumour is quite large, is causing symptoms or is producing chemicals that could harm your health.

What are the signs and symptoms of adrenal tumours?

Very often there are no particular signs or symptoms of adrenal tumours. However, in the case of an adrenal tumour producing a hormone which is causing high blood pressure, we quite often pick this up because the patient has been found to have high blood pressure.

What is involved in surgery for adrenal tumour treatment? Is non-surgical treatment possible?

There are newer, specialised techniques to treat adrenal tumours non-surgically; for example, a specialist radiologist could burn out an adrenal tumour by going in through the stomach.

However, in most cases where we identify an adrenal tumour as being a problem, either because it is growing, causing high blood pressure or making a hormone, we usually recommend surgical treatment. Nowadays, these operations are done laparoscopically and are very safe. Surgery of this type is performed by very skilled surgeons and you can recover very quickly.

If you wish to schedule a consultation with Dr Khoo, you can do so by visiting his Top Doctors profile.