Pheochromocytoma: The Ten-Percent Tumor

Pheochromocytomas are often referred to as the "ten percent tumor" because they do many things about ten percent of the time. The following is a fairly exhaustive list of these characteristics:

10 percent of all Pheochromocytomas are:

Malignant (90% are benign)
Bilateral (found in both adrenal glands: 90% are arise in just one of the two adrenal glands)
Extra-Adrenal (found within nervous tissue outside of the adrenal glands ... see below)
In Children (90% are in adults)
Familial (10% will have a family member with the same type of tumor)
Recur (10% or slightly less, will come back 5 to 10 years later)
Associated with MEN syndromes (patients with rare syndromes of endocrine tumors.)
Present with a stroke (10% of these tumors are found after the patient has a stroke)

Here's a look at the extra-adrenal sites of pheochromocytomas:

Within the sympathetic nerve chain along the spinal cord (orange spots)
Overlying the distal aorta (the main artery from the heart) (green spots)
Within the ureter (collecting system from the kidney (yellow spot)
Within the urinary bladder (blue spot)
Remember, 90% are in the adrenal glands (red spots on the kidneys)

Updated on: 04/18/16

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