The metastatic involvement of both
adrenal glands with complete replacement
by neoplasm, resulting in Addison's disease, is recognized as a most unusual if not
rare occurrence.1-6 The first well-documented cases in the American literature
were reported by Butterly and his associates,1 in 1952; Wallach and Scharfman,2
in 1952, and Sahagian-Edwards and Holland,3 in 1954. In 1957, Leary and
Masters5 also reported a case of Addison's
disease produced by metastasis from gastric
carcinoma.
Metastatic carcinoma to the pituitary
gland involving both the anterior and posterior lobes and the hypothalamus, resulting
in diabetes insipidus, is exceedingly rare.6-8
The survival of a patient 10 years after
pneumonectomy for primary bronchogenic
carcinoma, although not infrequently reported, remains an unusual occurrence.10-14
In personal communications Watson11
stated he had four cases of 10-year survival,
and in one of them a second primary lung
cancer developed which was nonresectable.
Overholt13 reported a five-year cure rate of
19%