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TUMOUR AND PLASMA ACTH CONCENTRATIONS IN PATIENTS WITH AND WITHOUT THE ECTOPIC ACTH SYNDROME
Author(s) -
RATCLIFFE J. G.,
KNIGHT R. A.,
BESSER G. M.,
LANDON J.,
STANSFELD A. G.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
clinical endocrinology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1365-2265
pISSN - 0300-0664
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2265.1972.tb00375.x
Subject(s) - medicine , endocrinology , adrenocorticotropic hormone , hormone , bronchus , peptide hormone , lung , respiratory disease
SUMMARY Bioactive and immunoreactive corticotrophin (ACTH) concentrations in seventeen tumours from patients with the ectopic ACTH syndrome were compared with those in fourteen ‘control’tumours from patients without the syndrome. Each of the ‘control’tumours showed ACTH activity greater than in non‐tumorous tissue and the range of concentrations overlapped with the ‘ectopic ACTH’group. The presence of significant ACTH activity in every tumour studied suggests that hormone production may be a common feature of neoplasia in the absence of clinically obvious sequelae of excess circulating hormone. Tumours associated with the ectopic ACTH syndrome showed a wide range of ACTH activities: bronchial carcinoid tumours generally contained higher levels than oat cell carcinomas of the bronchus and more C‐ than N‐terminal ACTH activity. In twenty‐four patients with the clinical syndrome the plasma ACTH levels were not clearly related to tumour type; the levels ranged between 100 and 10,000 pg/ml, showed an abnormal nyctohemeral rhythm, and fell following successful removal of the tumour.