At 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months post-adrenalectomy, both the ACTH dependent CD patients and ACTH independent adrenocortical adenoma patients showed significant increase over time in endogenous ACTH levels (Figure 1A, Supplementary Table 2), in the absence of exogenous ACTH administration. Here, POMC is linked to adrenal cortex adenoma.