Addison's Disease Due to Metastatic Bronchogenic Carcinoma

The frequency of adrenal involvement in bronchogenic carcinoma has been noted by many observers. In Willis'1series of 500 consecutive cancer necropsies, the most frequent adrenal metastases occurred in bronchogenic carcinoma, the incidence being 44%. In contrast, the incidence of adrenal involvement by all cancers was 9%. Willis1cited five additional series of bronchogenic carcinomas in which the incidence of adrenal metastases varied from 30% to 40%. In most cases, these metastases were bilateral and situated in the medulla. Jaffe2and Koletsky3reported the incidence of adrenal involvement as 40% and 45%, respectively; the glandular type of carcinoma was most often responsible. Koletsky's3series of 100 bronchogenic carcinomas comprised 10% of all cancers found by him at autopsy. At Queens General Hospital, bronchogenic carcinoma is a frequently encountered malignant tumor; it was found in 2.2% of all autopsies (5,030) performed here during the 10-year period