Pheochromocytoma - Society and Culture

Society and Culture

• Pheochromocytomas were mentioned a few times in the NBC TV series ER (aired in 1994–2009) and usually generated interest from the doctors due to the rarity of the diagnosis.
• In the second season premiere of the TV series House in the episode "Acceptance" (aired on 13 September 2005), House's patient, a death row inmate Clarence (played by LL Cool J), was diagnosed with pheochromocytoma — he killed his fourth victim unintentionally, during an episode of anger caused by adrenaline spike from the tumor.
• In Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre (along with its various film, television and graphic novel adaptations), the third novel on the popular Condor Trilogy, the martial artist Xie Xun suffers from an 'endocrine disorder' that is most likely a pheochromocytoma. This disorder, caused by his mastery of Kongtong Sect's Seven Harms Fist, causes him to suffer bouts of 'insanity' sporadically in a manner similar to that of Heracles, flying into violent rages and wrongly identifying even his loved ones as his hated enemies.
• In the third season of the TV series Private Practice in the episode "The Way We Were" (aired on 8 October 2009), 11-year-old patient (Tammy Larsen, played by Emily Evan Rae) suffers from ectopic pheochromocytoma on her ovary, which caused her episodes of anger, and during one of them she stabbed her father with a knife.
• An episode of Mystery Diagnosis dealt with a woman who had a pheochromocytoma.
• In season 10 of TV series MASH 4077 in the episode "Sons and Bowlers" Hawkeye receives news that his father is undergoing surgery after having been diagnosed with pheochromocytoma.
• British actress Katrin Cartlidge died at the age of 41 due to complications from Pheochromocytoma.
• President Eisenhower's death may have been caused by a pheochromocytoma.
• A skit during the Harvard Medical School annual show in 1978 included a song entitled "Pheo" (recited exactly in the manner of the Western song "Ringo") as a parody of a guest professor whose lecture on hypertension causes was oddly dominated by the extremely rare pheochromocytoma. The song began "The pulse I was feeling was thready and fast/So I thought I'd come upon at last/The cause of hypertension of Harvard fame/My steel-trap mind recalled the name of Pheo ...".