[Endocrine cells in human laryngeal tumors (ectopic hormone secretion)].

Hormone-producing cells (apudocytes) were found immunohistochemically in 3 out of 15 squamous cell carcinomas of the larynx. In one tumor these cells synthesized melatonin and a thyrotropic hormone, in the other insulin, and in the third insulin and somatotropic hormone. The appearance of tumor cells with endocrine function in nonendocrine neoplasias is considered to be not ectopic but the result of malignization at the level of polypotent cells followed by their differentiation into epithelial or endocrine cells.