Excess deoxycorticosterone secretion from adrenocortical carcinoma.

Abstract

A patient with hypertension, oedema, and hypokalaemia due to excessive secretion of deoxycorticosterone (DOC) is described. Her symptoms were cured by removal of an adrenal cortical carcinoma but recurred four years later when a metastasis was found in bone. The high plasma levels of DOC were sup- pressed by dexamethasone, suggesting that production of this steroid by the tumour cells was ACTH-dependent.