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Updated: Apr 19, 2026

An Orthotopic Resectional Mouse Model of Pancreatic Cancer
Published on: September 24, 2020
Metastatic pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor with ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone production
Muthiah Vaduganathan1, Amulya Nagarur1, Darcy A Kerr1
1Department of Medicine (Vaduganathan, Nagarur, Lauter, Padmanabhan, Raghavan, Pallais, Fenves) and the Department of Pathology (Kerr), Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Abstract:
We describe a 71-year-old man who presented with abdominal pain, lower-extremity edema, recent unintentional weight loss, hypertension, hyperglycemia, hypokalemia, and metabolic alkalosis. Serum cortisol levels remained elevated after overnight high-dose dexamethasone suppression. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a small mass in the head of the pancreas with scattered liver metastases. Both endoscopic ultrasound-guided pancreatic biopsy and liver biopsy revealed a well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumor. These lesions did not show significant uptake on octreotide scan. Medical management and hepatic artery chemoembolization were attempted. Ultimately, the patient underwent bilateral adrenalectomy, but died within 4 months of symptom onset secondary to postoperative complications.
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