what are adrenal tumors?

Tumors of the adrenal glands arise from the cortex or the medulla part of the adrenal gland. Adrenal tumors commonly present because of symptoms from excess secretion of hormones by the tumor.

The tumors from the adrenal cortex can produce excess secretion of steroid hormones and aldosterone and tumors from the adrenal medulla can produce excessive amounts of catecholamines. However up to 3.5% of the population have so called adrenal incidentalomas - tumors of the adrenals found incidentally during investigation for an unrelated condition. The majority of these do not secrete hormone.

Adrenal tumors can be benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancer). Often this separation is difficult to make and long term close follow up is necessary after removal to detect recurrences early in patients who have adrenal cancer.

Use the left hand navigation to view the different types of Adrenal tumors in more detail.