Therapeutic embolization of phaeochromocytoma

Abstract

A patient with metastatic deposits from a phaeochromocytoma may present the clinician with a difficult management problem owing to the relative insensitivity of this tumour to available chemotherapeutic agents and radiotherapy. We report a case in which the adverse humoral effects produced by lymph node metastases from a urinary bladder phaeochromocytoma have been successfully controlled by means of therapeutic arterial embolization. A 30-year-old Caucasian man presented in 1978 with an 18-year history of headaches induced by micturition. He had severe hypertension (260/170 mm Hg) and his plasma noradrenaline concentration was grossly elevated at 58 ng/ml (normal range 0.15–0.8).