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Some benign tumors need no treatment; others may be removed if they cause problems such as seizures, discomfort or cosmetic concerns. Surgery is usually the most effective approach and is used to treat most benign tumors. In some case other treatments may be of use. Adenomas of the rectum may be treated with sclerotherapy, a treatment in which chemicals are used to shrink blood vessels in order to cut off the blood supply. Most benign tumors do not respond to chemotherapy or radiation therapy, although there are exceptions; benign intercranial tumors are sometimes treated with radiation therapy and chemotherapy under certain circumstances. Radiation can also be used to treat hemangiomas in the rectum. Benign skin tumors are usually surgically resected but other treatments such as cryotherapy, curettage, electrodesiccation, laser therapy, dermabrasion, chemical peels and topical medication are used.
Some authors feel that all hepatocellular adenoma should be resected, because of the risk of rupture causing bleeding and because they may contain malignant cells. Current recommendations are that all hepatic adenomas should be resected, as long as they are surgically accessible and the patient is a reasonable operative candidate. Patients with adenomas should avoid oral contraceptives or hormonal replacement therapy.
Pregnancy could cause the adenoma to grow faster, so patients with hepatic adenomas should avoid pregnancy.
Nipple adenomas are non-cancerous growths, which can recur if not completely surgically removed. There are reported cases of cancers arising within nipple adenomas, and following excision of nipple adenomas, but these are rare occurrences.
Treatment may include the following:
- Surgery with or without radiation
- Radiotherapy
Fast neutron therapy has been used successfully to treat salivary gland tumors, and has shown to be significantly more effective than photons in studies treating unresectable salivary gland tumors.
- Chemotherapy
Most doctors consider this a normal physiological phenomenon and advise against treatment.
Even though there is no evidence of malignant potential, transurethral resection is recommended together with long-term antibiotic prophylaxis for at least one year after resection. Prolonged antibiotic therapy is suggested due to the frequent finding of UTI as an associated or causative factor.
There are three main treatments for Hürthle cell adenomas. Once the adenoma is detected most often the nodules removed to prevent the cells from later metastisizing. A total thyroidectomy is often performed, this results in a complete removal of the thyroid. Some patients may only have half of their thyroid removed, this is known as a thyroid lobectomy. Another treatment option includes pharmacological suppression of thyroid hormone. The thyroid gland is responsible for producing the thyroid hormones triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4). Patients with suppressed thyroid function often require oral thyroid replacement (e.g. levothyroxine) in order to maintain normal thyroid hormone levels. The final treatment option is RAI abaltion (radioactive iodine ablation). This treatment option is used to destroy infected thyroid cells after total thyroidectomy. This treatment does not change prognosis of disease, but will diminish the recurrence rate. Also, Hürthle cells do not respond well to RAI. However, often doctors suggest this treatment to patients with Hürthle cell adenoma and Hürthle cell carcinoma because some Hürthle cells will respond and it will kill remaining tissue.
Wide, radical, complete surgical excision is the treatment of choice, with free surgical margins to achieve the best outcome and lowest chance of recurrence. Radiation is only used for palliation. In general, there is a good prognosis, although approximately 50% of patients die from disease within 3–10 years of presentation.
Most patients with thyroid adenoma can be managed by watchful waiting (without surgical excision) with regular monitoring. However, some patients still choose surgery after being fully informed of the risks. Regular monitoring mainly consists of watching for changes in nodule size and symptoms, and repeat ultrasonography or needle aspiration biopsy if the nodule grows.
Patients treated with complete surgical excision can expect an excellent long term outcome without any problems. Recurrences may be seen in tumors which are incompletely excised.
The only curative treatment is complete surgical excision of the tumor, which can be performed even in the case of invasion into large blood vessels, such as the renal vein or inferior vena cava. The 5-year survival rate after successful surgery is 50–60%, but unfortunately, a large percentage of patients are not surgical candidates. Radiation therapy and radiofrequency ablation may be used for palliation in patients who are not surgical candidates.
Chemotherapy regimens typically include the drug mitotane, an inhibitor of steroid synthesis which is toxic to cells of the adrenal cortex, as well as standard cytotoxic drugs. A retrospective analysis showed a survival benefit for mitotane in addition to surgery when compared to surgery alone.
The two most common regimens are cisplatin, doxorubicin, etoposide + mitotane and streptozotocin + mitotane. It is unknown which regimen is better. Researchers at Uppsala University Hospital initiated a collaboration between adrenocortical cancer specialists in Europe, USA and Australia, to conduct the first ever randomized controlled trial in adrenocortical cancer (FIRM-ACT study), comparing these two regimens.
Treatment options depend on the type of tumor and on its size:
- Prolactinomas are most often treated with cabergoline or quinagolide (both dopamine agonists), which decrease tumor size as well as alleviates symptoms, followed by serial imaging to detect any increase in size. Treatment where the tumor is large can be with radiation therapy or surgery, and patients generally respond well. Efforts have been made to use a progesterone antagonist for the treatment of prolactinomas, but so far have not proved successful.
- Somatotrophic adenomas respond to octreotide, a long-acting somatostatin analog, in many but not all cases according to a review of the medical literature. Unlike prolactinomas, thyrotrophic adenomas characteristically respond poorly to dopamine agonist treatment.
- Surgery is a common treatment for pituitary tumors. The normal approach is Trans-sphenoidal adenectomy, which usually can remove the tumor without affecting the brain or optic nerves.
- Danazol is a steroid compound that has been labelled as an "Anterior pituitary suppressant".
The appropriate treatment in contemporary western medicine is complete surgical excision of the abnormal growth with a small amount of normal surrounding breast tissue.
The tumor must be removed with as complete a surgical excision as possible. In nearly all cases, the ossicular chain must be included if recurrences are to be avoided. Due to the anatomic site of involvement, facial nerve paralysis and/or paresthesias may be seen or develop; this is probably due to mass effect rather than nerve invasion. In a few cases, reconstructive surgery may be required. Since this is a benign tumor, no radiation is required. Patients experience an excellent long term outcome, although recurrences can be seen (up to 15%), especially if the ossicular chain is not removed. Although controversial, metastases are not seen in this tumor. There are reports of disease in the neck lymph nodes, but these patients have also had other diseases or multiple surgeries, such that it may represent iatrogenic disease.
Wide excision is the treatment of choice, although attempting to preserve hearing. Based on the anatomic site, it is difficult to completely remove, and so while there is a good prognosis, recurrences or persistence may be seen. There is no metastatic potential. Patients who succumb to the disease, usually do so because of other tumors within the von Hippel-Lindau complex rather than from this tumor.
These lesions rarely require surgery unless they are symptomatic or the diagnosis is in question. Since these lesions do not have malignant potential, long-term observation is unnecessary. Surgery can include the removal of the head of the pancreas (a pancreaticoduodenectomy), removal of the body and tail of the pancreas (a distal pancreatectomy), or rarely removal of the entire pancreas (a total pancreatectomy). In selected cases the surgery can be performed using minimally invasive techniques such as laparoscopy.
As metanephric adenomas are considered benign, they can be left in place, i.e. no treatment is needed.
Simple surgical excision is curative. The recommended treatment is that the skin is peeled off the extra-auricular tissue and protruding cartilage remnants are trimmed. Normal appearance is achieved in majority of cases. The reconstruction successful in true cases of accessory auricle, as it also is in individuals with auricular appendages.
Fordyce spots are completely benign and require no treatment. Often their presence is considered normal anatomic variance rather than a true medical condition.
A non-minimally invasive Hürthle cell carcinoma is typically treated by a total thyroidectomy followed by radioactive iodine therapy. A Hürthle cell adenoma or a minimally invasive tumor can be treated by a thyroid lobectomy, although some surgeons will perform a total thyroidectomy to prevent the tumor from reappearing and metastasizing.
A modified radical neck dissection may be performed for clinically positive lymph nodes.
TSC typically affects multiple organ systems and manifests differently in each patient and in different stages of the life course. Drug therapy, surgery, and other interventions can be effective in managing some of the manifestations and symptoms of TSC.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has approved several drugs for managing some of the major manifestations of TSC. The antiepileptic medication vigabatrin was approved in 2009 for treatment of infantile spasms and was recommended as first-line therapy for infantile spasms in children with TSC by the 2012 International TSC Consensus Conference. Adrenocorticotropic hormone was approved in 2010 to treat infantile spasms. Everolimus was approved for treatment of TSC-related tumors in the brain (subependymal giant cell astrocytoma) in 2010 and in the kidneys (renal angiomyolipoma) in 2012. Everolimus also showed evidence of effectiveness at treating epilepsy in some people with TSC. In 2017, the European Commission approved everolimus for treatment of refractory partial-onset seizures associated with TSC.
Neurosurgical intervention may reduce the severity and frequency of seizures in TSC patients. Embolization and other surgical interventions can be used to treat renal angiomyolipoma with acute hemorrhage. Surgical treatments for symptoms of lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) in adult TSC patients include pleurodesis to prevent pneumothorax and lung transplantation in the case of irreversible lung failure.
Other treatments that have been used to treat TSC manifestations and symptoms include a ketogenic diet for intractable epilepsy and pulmonary rehabilitation for LAM.
Polyps can be removed during a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy using a wire loop that cuts the stalk of the polyp and cauterises it to prevent bleeding. Many "defiant" polyps—large, flat, and otherwise laterally spreading adenomas—may be removed endoscopically by a technique called endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR), which involves injection of fluid underneath the lesion to lift it and thus facilitate surgical excision. These techniques may be employed as an alternative to the more invasive colectomy.
Surgery is the only cure for parathyroid adenomas. It is successful about 95% of the time. Parathyroidectomy is the removal of the affected gland(s). The standard of treatment of primary hyperparathyroidism was formerly a surgical technique called bilateral neck exploration, in which the neck was opened on both sides, the parathyroids were identified, and the affected tissue was removed. By the 1980s, unilateral exploration became more common. Parathyroidectomy can now be performed in a minimally invasive fashion, mainly because imaging techniques can pinpoint the location of the tissue. Minimally invasive techniques include smaller open procedures, radio-guided and video-assisted procedures, and totally endoscopic surgery.
Before surgery is attempted, the affected glandular tissue must be located. Though the parathyroid glands are usually located on the back of the thyroid, their position is variable. Some people have one or more parathyroid glands elsewhere in the neck anatomy or in the chest. About 10% of parathyroid adenomas are ectopic, located not along the back of the thyroid but elsewhere in the body, sometimes in the mediastinum of the chest. This can make them difficult to locate, so various imaging techniques are used, such as the sestamibi scan, single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), ultrasound, MRI, and CT scans. sometimes parathyroid adenomas can be ablated by ethanol injection, guided by ultrasound.
Papillary eccrine adenoma (also known as "tubular apocrine adenoma") is a cutaneous condition characterized by an uncommon benign sweat gland neoplasm that presents as a dermal nodule located primarily on the extremities of black patients.
A physician's response to detecting an adenoma in a patient will vary according to the type and location of the adenoma among other factors. Different adenomas will grow at different rates, but typically physicians can anticipate the rates of growth because some types of common adenomas progress similarly in most patients. Two common responses are removing the adenoma with surgery and then monitoring the patient according to established guidelines.
One common example of treatment is the response recommended by specialty professional organizations upon removing adenomatous polyps from a patient. In the common case of removing one or two of these polyps from the colon from a patient with no particular risk factors for cancer, thereafter the best practice is to resume surveillance colonoscopy after 5–10 years rather than repeating it more frequently than the standard recommendation.