gms | German Medical Science

Objective: Reduced quality of life (QoL) is a common complaint in patients suffering from pituitary tumors. Although successful tumor treatment has been reported to lead to an improvement in perceived QoL, the temporal gradient at which these improvements occur has not been fully addressed.

Methods: Using three validated health-related questionnaires (SF-36, SCL-90-R, QLS-H), we assessed QoL in 106 adult patients harboring pituitary tumors (mean age 48.0 ± 16.0 years) before as well as 3 and 12 months after the initiation of treatment. The AcroQoL questionnaire was additionally applied in acromegalic patients. Patient outcomes were compared with 28 sex, age and gender-matched healthy controls.

Results: We found a significantly impaired QoL in all questionnaires in the patients group compared to the 28 controls before treatment. There was a significant improvement in all but one scale (role-physical) of the SF-36 questionnaire and all but two scales (interpersonal sensitivity, paranoid ideation) of the SCL-90-R, the QLS-H score and the AcroQoL subscales within 3 months after surgical treatment. The trend to amelioration continued at the 12 month re-assessment, but did not reach statistical significance. Linear regression analyses revealed that younger age and male gender favor a more distinct improvement in QoL after treatment.

Conclusions: QoL is considerably reduced before treatment for pituitary disease. Improvement is an early postoperative phenomenon and occurs within 3 months after treatment. Men and younger patients are more likely to improve within this time span.