Paraneoplastic (non-metastatic) adrenal insufficiency preceded the onset of primary lung cancer by 12 weeks
- Ghanshyam Palamaner Subash Shantha1,
- Anita A Kumar1,
- Vijay Jeyachandran1,
- Deepan Rajamanickam1,
- Emmanuel Bhaskar1,
- Vinod K Paniker2,
- Georgi Abraham1
- 1Sri Ramachandra University, General Medicine, Plot no. 70, Door no. 12, Kattabomman Street, Alwarthirunagar, Chennai, Tamilnadu, 600087, India
- 2Sri Ramachandra University, Pathology, Plot no. 70, Door no.12, Kattabomman Street, Alwarthirunagar, Chennai, Tamilnadu, 600087, India
- Ghanshyam Palamaner Subash Shantha, drpssghanshyam{at}yahoo.co.in
- Published 25 May 2009
Summary
Clinically evident adrenal insufficiency associated with lung cancer is a rare entity. Among reported cases, adrenal insufficiency has occurred with or succeeded the primary lung cancer. Adrenal insufficiency has also been secondary to metastasis to the adrenal gland. The present report concerns a 61-year-old man, a chronic smoker, who presented to us with symptomatic adrenal insufficiency. He had no evidence of lung cancer during this visit. The primary lung cancer was only identified 12 weeks later. Additionally, his adrenals showed no evidence of metastasis. Hence his adrenal insufficiency had been a paraneoplastic manifestation of the lung cancer, and it had also preceded the primary by 12 weeks.
Footnotes
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Competing interests: None.
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Patient consent: Patient/guardian consent was obtained for publication.
