Ura, Ayako and Moser, Elisa and Evert, Matthias and Evert, Katja and Maerkl, Bruno and Sipos, Eva and Kremer, Marcus and Sasano, Hironobu and Okada, Yoshinori and Steiger, Katja and Mogler, Carolin and Hoffmann, Hans and von Werder, Alexander and Kaemmerer, Daniel and Uccella, Silvia and La Rosa, Stefano and Kloeppel, Guenter and Kasajima, Atsuko (2025) Is Ectopic Cushing Syndrome Commonly Associated with Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC)? Critical Review of the Literature and ACTH Expression in Resected SCLC. ENDOCRINE PATHOLOGY, 36 (1): 16. ISSN 1046-3976, 1559-0097
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
The literature emphasizes that pulmonary ectopic Cushing syndrome (ECS) is associated not only with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), but also with small cell lung carcinomas (SCLCs). This statement is debatable, because extrapulmonary ECS is associated with NETs in the vast majority of cases and very rarely with neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs). Therefore, we critically reviewed the literature on SCLCs associated with ECS (ECS-SCLC) and performed immunohistochemical analysis of ACTH expression in 155 resected SCLCs and 158 pulmonary NETs. The literature search revealed that 90% of the 205 ECS-SCLC patients identified between 1952 and 2023 had no or poor-quality histologic images, so the diagnosis of SCLC could not be confirmed. Review of the 20 reports (10%) with histologic images revealed that 18/20 (90%) had to be reclassified as "probable NET", of which 5/18 (28%) showed spindle cell morphology, while only 2 cases were qualified as "SCLC compatible" due to their pleomorphic cell features. Immunohistochemically, 5/155 (3%) resected SCLCs, all without ECS, showed weak single cell ACTH expression, whereas in the NET cohort, 61/158 (39%) tumors expressed ACTH, of which 4 (3%) were associated with ECS. Both observations, the literature review, which casts doubt on previously reported data regarding the frequency of SCLC in ECS, and the immunohistochemical study, suggest that there is limited evidence that SCLC is the cause of ECS.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | HORMONE-SECRETION; CARCINOMA; MANAGEMENT; TUMORS; DIAGNOSIS; FEATURES; Ectopic Cushing syndrome; Lung; SCLC; ACTH |
| Subjects: | 600 Technology > 610 Medical sciences Medicine |
| Divisions: | Medicine > Lehrstuhl für Pathologie |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Apr 2026 09:41 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Apr 2026 09:41 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/67590 |
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