In the staging of cancer patients, transient and spontaneously reversible bilateral adrenal hypertrophy may mimic a secondary localization of the disease. We discuss the case of an 82-year-old male patient with suspected testicular neoplasia in which abdominal CT examination reveals the onset of a bilateral macronodular adrenal enlargement, suggesting the diagnostic hypothesis of primary testicular neoplasia with secondary adrenal localization. The subsequent 18FDG-PET/CT study showed hyper-metabolism of the testicular mass, while the adrenal glands, surprisingly, did not show increased uptake of the radiotracer. After right orchifunicolectomy, primary testicular diffuse large B-cell lymphoma was diagnosed. The subsequent staging PET/CT study with iodine contrast medium, three months after the first CT examination, showed spontaneous complete regression of the adrenal hypertrophy without any use of drug therapy. The differential diagnosis of this finding considered the lack of hypermetabolism and the densitometric characteristics of the adrenal glands, the absence of possible pharmacological interactions throughout the time of the diagnostic procedures, and the available clinical-laboratory data. By excluding the main causes of adrenal hypertrophy, the most likely diagnostic hypothesis was transient adrenal hypertrophy due to stress induced by testicular lymphoma, meaning by stress a disturbance not only emotional but also an alteration of organic homeostasis. Our case suggests that the analysis of adrenal lesions appeared in cancer patients should take into account non-metastatic conditions that must be studied with a multimodal approach and with serial investigations.
Keywords: Adrenal hyperplasia; Incidentaloma; Lymphoma; Reversible; Testicular.
© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of University of Washington.