What are adrenal tumors?

What are adrenal tumors?

Adrenal tumors are tumors on the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands are located above the kidneys and have two parts, the adrenal cortex and the adrenal medulla. The adrenal cortex secretes hormones including cortisol and aldosterone. The adrenal medulla produces dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine. There are different types of adrenal tumors, and they can be either cancerous or noncancerous (benign).

The vast majority of adrenal tumors are benign. Most often, they do not cause any symptoms and are discovered as incidental findings on either a CT or MRI done for completely unrelated reasons, such as for evaluation of abdominal pain. As such, they are referred to as adrenal incidentalomas. Aside from categorizing them as noncancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant), they are categorized as functioning or nonfunctioning. Functioning tumors lead to overproduction of one or more of the normal adrenal hormones.