Abstract
The roentgenological observation is able to prove the benefits induced by bilateral oophoro-adrenalectomy in patients with metastatic spreading to the respiratory apparatus or to the skeleton. In fact, periodic roentgenological controls show a rapid and steady absorption of the pleural effusion and the disappearance (although less rapid and less frequent) of the lymphangitic processes, of the hilar adenopathies and of the lung metastases.
Of particular interest are the bone modifications, occurring at the level of the osteolytic neoplastic foci and. in the other sites of the skeleton; these ought to be studied not only periodically, but also with a systematic criterion.
The repairing phenomenas of the osteolytic foci are of various type: gradual reduction of the rarefaction focus with formation of a normal trabecular structure, processes of intense re-calcification with signs of osteosclerosis, evolution towards osteosclerosis followed, in some cases, by the formation of a normal bone structure.
The roentgenological findings appear to be very interesting as they show, concomitantly with the regression of osteolytic manifestations, the appearance of new bone pathological changes. Of particular relevance are the pictures of diffuse decalcification unrelated to metastases, which were found in some patients long after the surgical operation: these are supposed to be related, as well as the Cushing syndrome-like habitus, to conditions of hormonal imbalance.
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