EFFECTS OF SURGICAL HYPOPHYSECTOMY IN A MAN WITH MALIGNANT MELANOMA*

Abstract

Surgical hypophysectomy was performed on a 32-yr.-old man with metastatic melanoma. The patient survived for 9 weeks. Within a month after surgery and 2 weeks after post operative steroid therapy, he developed panhypopituitar-ism, as manifested by a drop in the basal metabolic rate, protein-bound serum iodine, blood glucose and urinary 17-ketosteroid excretion. Autopsy revealed epithelial atrophy of the testis, adrenals and thyroid, and generalized hyperplasia of lymph nodes. A microscopic cell nest of adenohypophyseal cells was found in the pituitary fossa; the posterior pituitary had been completely removed. Hypophysectomy in this patient had no definite effect on the progressive growth of the melanoma, although unusual degenerative changes were found in metastases to the liver and spleen.