A thymic carcinoid tumour causing Zollinger-Ellison and Cushing’s syndromes due to ectopic ACTH and gastrin secretion

摘要

Cushings’s syndrome due to ectopic adrenocorticotrophin (ACTH) secretion was first described nearly a century ago by Hurst Brown.¹ Bronchial carcinomas, usually bronchial carcinoids, were the first to be described and continue to be the leading cause of the ectopic ACTH syndrome; however, thymic carcinoids account for approximately 10% of cases.² The Zollinger Ellison syndrome, excessive gastrin secretion from a neuroendcorine tumour, has been described as exclusively due to neuroendocrine tumours of entero-pancreatic origin, while secretion of gastrin from a thymic carcinoid tumour has not been reported to our knowledge. We report a unique case of a 34-year-old woman with ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome and Zollinger-Ellison syndrome due to a thymic carcinoid tumour.