FAMILIAL PHEOCHROMOCYTOMA: Report on Three Siblings with Bilateral Tumors

THE FIRST successful diagnosis and surgical removal of pheochromocytomas from both adrenal glands of two members of the same family were reported by Calkins and Howard 1 in 1947 and Colston 2 in 1948. The tumors on each side were removed from each of these two patients at different operations, with an interval between the operations in each case. Calkins and Howard not only diagnosed bilateral pheochromocytomas but pointed out the familial incidence, one of their patients being the niece of the other. Furthermore, the mother of the younger patient, who was also a sister of the elder, probably died of the same condition. In their excellent report Calkins and Howard reviewed the literature from the time of Frankel, 3 in 1886, who reported the first case, that of a girl 18 years old in whom he found bilateral tumors of the adrenal medulla at necropsy. Calkins and Howard found