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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Pituitary Endocrinology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1527161
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances and challenges in adult-onset craniopharyngioma View all articles

A Case-Based Review of Adult-Onset Craniopharyngioma

Provisionally accepted
Scott Meyer Scott Meyer 1*Shruti N. Shah Shruti N. Shah 1Kristen Dancel-Manning Kristen Dancel-Manning 2Yuxiu Wang Yuxiu Wang 3Matthew Young Matthew Young 4Nidhi Agrawal Nidhi Agrawal 2*
  • 1 Department of Medicine, Langone Medical Center, New York University, New York City, United States
  • 2 Department of Endocrinology, Langone Medical Center, New York University, New York City, United States
  • 3 Department of Pathology, Langone Medical Center, New York University, New York City, United States
  • 4 Department of Radiology, Langone Medical Center, New York University, New York City, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Craniopharyngiomas are histologically benign central nervous system tumors derived from embryonic epithelial cells of Rathke’s pouch. The disease demonstrates a bimodal age distribution, occurring most often in patients 5-14 and 50-74 years of age. Common comorbidities include hypopituitarism, hypothalamic obesity, sleep apnea, visual impairment and neurocognitive disturbances. There are several key differences in the presentation, tumor characteristics and clinical outcomes between age groups. Childhood craniopharyngiomas are mostly adamantinomatous and often present as larger tumors with worse functional outcomes such as rates of obesity and neurological deficits. Adults experience similar but slightly adjusted rates of comorbidity with both the adamantinomatous and papillary subtypes. This review presents a case-based discussion of adult craniopharyngiomas, focusing on recent literature regarding their presentation, pathology and pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment and long-term sequelae.

    Keywords: Craniopharyngioma, adult craniopharyngioma, Papillary craniopharyngioma (PCP), Adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma, Mini review, literature review, Case-Based

    Received: 12 Nov 2024; Accepted: 06 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Meyer, Shah, Dancel-Manning, Wang, Young and Agrawal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Scott Meyer, Department of Medicine, Langone Medical Center, New York University, New York City, United States
    Nidhi Agrawal, Department of Endocrinology, Langone Medical Center, New York University, New York City, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.