Association of Cushing's Syndrome and Neoplastic Disease

The association of Cushing's syndrome and neoplastic disease has occurred with sufficient frequency to suggest something more than a coincidental relationship. Having excluded pituitary and adrenocortical tumors, we were able to find reports of 58 cases in which neoplasms of various other kinds occurred in patients with Cushing's syndrome. This group comprised 18 thymomas,1-1522 bronchogenic carcinomas,16-348 pancreatic carcinomas (5 acinar and 3 islet cell),2,35-41and 10 miscellaneous tumors42-51; the 10 miscellaneous neoplasms included 3 tumors of the central nervous system, a sympathoblastoma, 2 cases of carcinoma of the thyroid, and 1 case each of carcinoma of the testicle, ovary, prostate, and esophagus. With one exception,51the association was a simultaneous one. In addition, there have been several instances in which both adrenocortical and adrenal medullary hyperfunction were thought to have occurred in the same patient,52-64although in most of these cases the supporting