Five patients with lymphoma developed severe hypoglycemia in the terminal stages of the disease. There were several possibIe causes for the hypogIycemia in these patients, including severe liver disease, malabsorption, inanition and gastro-intestinal ulceration. Characteristics were present which were similar to nonpancreatic tumors associated with hypoglycemia. The authors suggest that hypoglycemia may be more frequent than commonly is recognized and should be searched for in patients with lymphomatous disease.
EARLY A HUNDRED CASES OF HYPOGLYCEMIA
N associated with extra-pancreatic neoplasms have been reported;ll however, we have found only 2 reported cases of hypoglycemia occurring in patients with lymphomatous diseases. Gold and Shniderl* in their report on unusual syndromes associated with neoplastic diseases referred to a patient with a large retroperitoneal reticulum cell sarcoma who had hypoglycemia. Rosenberg, Diamond, Jaslowitz and Craverls in their review of 1,269 cases of lymphosarcoma mentioned one patient who had hypoglycemia which occurred terminally.
We are reporting 5 patients with lymphomas-2 with reticulum cell sarcoma, 2 with lymphosarcoma and one with Hodgkin's disease-who developed hypoglycemia in the late stages of their disease.
CASE REPORTS
Case 1.