A 35-year-old female is found to have a solitary mass on the chest x ray.
Biopsy confirms this to be a carcinoid tumour of the lung.
Which of the following are likely to be associated with this lesion?
Carcinoid syndrome
Cushing’s syndrome This is the correct answer
Hyponatraemia
Pellagra
Pulmonary hypertension
Classical carcinoid syndrome occurs in less than 10% of patients with carcinoid tumours, but occurs
most commonly in those with tumours of the small intestine, appendix, and proximal small bowel.
Those in the lung rarely cause carcinoid, but have been associated with ACTH secretion and
subsequent Cushing’s syndrome.
Other associated conditions where foregut carcinoid tumours are found in the pancreas are
associated with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome and VIPoma.
A bronchial carcinoid tumour has rarely been reported in association with acromegaly (ectopic growth
hormone-releasing hormone [GHRH]).
They may also be found in association with multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) type 1 where