Pituitary-Adrenocortical Studies in a Patient with Cushing's Syndrome Induced by Thymoma¹

Detection of an Acth-Secreting Bronchial Carcinoid Tumour Eighteen Months After Adrenalectomy for Cushing's Syndrome

“…In a previous paper our group reported on spon¬ taneous hyperadrenocorticism in a dog with »non-suppressible hyperplasia« in which adrenocortical function was normalized by hypophysectomy (Rijnberk et al 1968). Neither is suppressibility definite proof of the absence of a tumour: decrease in corticosteroid excretion has been described in a case of adrenocorti¬ cal carcinoma (Kendall 8c Sloop 1968), in a case of thymoma (Miura et al 1967) and in 3 of the 8 cases of bronchial carcinoid listed in Table 2.…”

The Thymus in Clinical Perspective

“…Illustrating the inverse relationship between age and malignancy of thymic tumours is the incidence of malignancy in the three groups of patients, namely 46% in those with Cushing's syndrome, 20% in those with myasthenia gravis and 8% in those with 'pure red cell anmmia'. The relationship between thymic tumours and Cushing's syndrome is probably quite different from that of the other associated diseases in that the Cushing's syndrome is due, as in other cases with so-called non-endocrine tumours, to the secretion of an adrenocorticotrophin-like substance by the tumour, as in the patients recently reported by Lemon et al (1966) and by Miura et al (1967). There is also a histological difference, the tumours being of a more uniform appearance, consisting almost entirely of epithelial cells and being similar microscopically to bronchial carcinomas and adenomas associated with Cushing's syndrome, and to the metastases, although not to the primary tumours, of pulmonary oat cell carcinomas so associated (Thorne 1952, Scholz & Bahn 1959, Cohen et al 1960).…”

Thymic Carcinoid

“…Most of them have been asymptomatic, but in some cases there has been a concomitant multiple endocrine adenomatosis ( 11,17). The group described as epidermoid thymoma has regularly been associated with Cushing's syndrome (12,18,22). ACTH activity has been observed in tumour extracts in a few of these cases (7,12,14).…”

“…The group described as epidermoid thymoma has regularly been associated with Cushing's syndrome (12,18,22). ACTH activity has been observed in tumour extracts in a few of these cases (7,12,14).…”