Growth hormone secreting carcinoma of lung and hypertrophic osteoarthropathy

Plasma Human Growth Hormone (HGH) was raised in a patient with bronchial carcinoma and hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy before radiotherapy to the tumour. Though the soft-tissue swelling and pain of hypertrophic osteoarthropathy disappeared two to three weeks after radiotherapy to the carcinoma the HGH plasma levels were still very high at two months and came back to normal levels at six months and remained so at one year. It is suggested that ectopic production of HGH by the tumour in this case was not responsible for the changes of hypertrophic osterarthropathy.