Simultaneous ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone syndrome and adrenal metastasis of a medullary thyroid carcinoma causing paraneoplastic Cushing's syndrome

Michael Sand; Samuel Uecker; Falk G Bechara; Marcos Gelos; Daniel Sand; Till H Wiese; Benno Mann

doi:10.1186/1477-7800-4-15

Simultaneous ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone syndrome and adrenal metastasis of a medullary thyroid carcinoma causing paraneoplastic Cushing's syndrome

Int Semin Surg Oncol. 2007 Jul 2:4:15. doi: 10.1186/1477-7800-4-15.

Authors

Michael Sand^#¹, Samuel Uecker^#¹, Falk G Bechara², Marcos Gelos¹, Daniel Sand³, Till H Wiese⁴, Benno Mann¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of General and Visceral Surgery, Augusta Krankenanstalt, Academic Teaching Hospital, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.
² Department of Dermatology and Allergology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.
³ Department of Physiological Science, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), USA.
⁴ Department of Radiology, Augusta Krankenanstalt, Academic Teaching Hospital of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Medullary thyroid carcinomas (MTC) constitute about 5 to 7 % of thyroid neoplasms. They originate from parafollicular C-cells which can secrete adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and/or corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) in abnormally high concentrations, potentially causing paraneoplastic Cushing's Syndrome (CS). We report on a 42-year-old male patient with a ten year history of metastatic medullary thyroid carcinoma suffering from paraneoplastic Cushing's Syndrome caused by ectopic hypersecretion of ACTH and a simultaneous Cortisol producing adrenal metastasis.