Adrenocorticotropin Hormone Secreting Carcinoma of the Pancreas: A Case Report

Introduction: Adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH) secreting pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (pNENs) are rare. The clinical and biological behavior of pNENs is poorly understood. Patients often present at an advanced stage of disease and outcomes remain poor. This report demonstrates a case of ectopic Cushing's syndrome secondary to an ACTH-producing pancreatic neuroendocrine carcinoma (pNEC). Case report: A 54-year-old woman presented with rapidly progressive Cushing's syndrome complicated by hypertension and acute heart failure. This was ultimately found to be secondary to a metastatic ACTH-producing pNEC. She underwent laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy with hepatic metastasectomy as primary treatment. She had rapid correction of her endocrine abnormalities and associated physiological abnormalities. She had progressive hepatic metastases found on imaging at 3 months, but remained free of significant endocrine abnormalities for 9 months after surgery. Her disease did recur and she died of complications associated with her disease at 1 year after her surgery. Conclusion: ACTH-producing pNEN is a very rare disease with a poor prognosis. Robust evidence to guide treatment decisions is limited. This report suggests that aggressive surgical management of primary and metastatic lesions for management of this disease is reasonable, consistent with prior case reports. Control of endocrine abnormalities offers the best opportunity for prolonged survival, and an aggressive surgical approach can achieve this goal. The patient presented had control of endocrine abnormalities after surgery for 9 months before symptomatic disease recurrence.