Search

Multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 1 (MEN1, Wermer's syndrome) is a group of heterogeneous inherited diseases, with its pathogenesis related to hyperplasia or neoplasms of several endocrine glands. This syndrome is characterized by autosomal dominant mode of inheritance, high penetrance and similar prevalence among males and females. Prevalence of MEN1 is estimated to be 1:100,000 of the population. An interesting feature of the presented clinical case is a relapse and transformation of pituitary tumor from a prolactin-secreting into the mixed one, with distinct compartments of ACTH- and prolactin-secreting, in a female patient with a family MEN1 syndrome, with involvement of the pancreas, parathyroid and pituitary glands. Her brother had a synchronous manifestation of the same types of tumors, except corticotropinoma. The presented clinical case highlights the necessity of a comprehensive and life-long follow-up of MEN1 patients for a timely detection of neoplasms and appropriate treatment.

Despite the implementation of screening programs for early diagnosis of congenital disorders, both in the Russian Federation, as well as worldwide, there are still cases of late diagnosis of congenital adrenal cortical hyperplasia (CAH), where after long-standing virilization clinicians often face the need of gender assignment, considering not only the medical indications, but also the patient's self-identification. In this article, we present a rare clinical case of patient with hypertonic type of CAH diagnosed in adulthood. At birth, the patient had ambiguous genitalia; the diagnosis of CAH was made, and the patient was assigned to female gender. However, due to some social factors, the patient was not followed up and received no treatment. The lack of treatment resulted in progression of the virilization, disturbance of the patient's gender self-identification (the female patient considered himself male), final short stature and arterial hypertension. The patient attended endocrinology clinic for the first time at the age of 19. The diagnosis of hypertensive type of CAH was based on clinical manifestation of the virile syndrome combined with hyporeninemic arterial hypertension, as well as the results of multisteroid blood analysis with identification of steroid cortisol precursors and the results of the genetic testing for CYP11B1 gene mutation. Administration of glucocorticoid replacement therapy after the late diagnosis of hypertonic type of CAH did not resolve all of the patient's concerns. The disorder of the gender self-identification in a female patient resulted in the change of the passport gender to the male one, with surgical correction in accordance to the chosen gender and replacement androgen therapy. Persistent arterial hypertension required additional anti-hypertensive treatment. This clinical case highlights that psychosocial, ethnic factors and religious factors should be taken into consideration, as well as the multidisciplinary involvement of endocrinologists, psychiatrists, andrologists and gynecologists is necessary for the management of such patients.

Background: Ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-dependent Cushing's syndrome is a type hypercorticism caused by ectopic production of ACTH and/or its precursors by neuroendocrine tumors (NET) of various localization, such as lung and thymus carcinoids, less frequently those of pancreas and gastrointestinal tract, medullary thyroid cancer, pheochromocytoma, small cell lung cancer, as well as some other tumor types. The wide spectrum of tumors associated with the ectopic ACTH syndrome (EAS) makes their diagnosis and treatment a complicated issue.Materials and methods: The study was done with surgical and diagnostic biopsy samples from 60 patients who had tumors with EAS, 36 (60%) of them being bronchopulmonary carcinoids, 10 (16.7%) thymus carcinoids, 5 (8.3%) pancreatic NETs, 3 (5%) medullary thyroid cancers, 3 (5%) NETs of unknown primary localization, and NET of appendix, cecum and pheochromocytoma (one case of each, i.e. 1.7%, 1.7%, 1.7%). There were 38 female and 22 male patients (1.72:1), with their mean age of 39 ± 14 years (range, 16 to 77 years). We analyzed their clinical data, as well as the results of morphological and immunohistochemical examination of the tumors.Results: According to the World Health Organization classification (2015), typical carcinoids (TC) of the lung were found in 77.8% (28/36) of the bronchopulmonary tumors. 22.2% (8/36) of the bronchopulmonary tumors and all thymus tumors (100%, n = 10) were classified as atypical carcinoids (ATC). Four pancreatic NETs were classified as Grade 2 (G2), 1 as G3, and NETs of the cecum and appendix as G1 and G2, respectively. At present, 29 (48%) patients are living with no relapse (mean age 39 ± 13.5 years), whereas 22 (37%) of patients developed a relapse (mean age 35 ± 13 years), and 15 (25%) of them died, regardless of the age of the patients The history of the disease was not traced in 4 cases. 5-year relapse-free survival of patients with TC of the lung was 85.7% (24/28), of those with ATC 25% (2/8), with ATC of the thymus and medullary thyroid cancer 0%. Mortality from to TC of the lung for the entire follow-up period was 3.6% (1/28), to ATC 12.5% (1/8), to ATC of the thymus and for medullary thyroid cancer 62.5% and 100%, respectively. The patients with NET of the cecum, appendix and pheochromocytoma are alive without progression for 4, 5 and 6 years, respectively. Therefore, the lowest 5-year survival of patients with EAS was observed in medullary thyroid cancer, pancreatic NET and thymus carcinoids: in 100% (3/3), 75% (3/4), and 57.1% (4/7), respectively.Conclusion: The most unfavorable prognostic factors in the EAS are the localization of tumors in the thymus, pancreas and thyroid gland. This indicates the necessity of a differentiated treatment approaches to patients with this syndrome.