Developing treatment for adrenocortical carcinoma.

Cancer of the adrenal cortex (ACC) is a rare endocrine malignancy with limited treatment options. Patients typically present with autonomous hormonal overproduction and/or a large abdominal mass. Hormonal assays and medical imaging can be diagnostic, but urinary steroid profiling might be a more sensitive technique to assess malignancy in adrenal tumours. The stage of the disease at diagnosis is the most important prognostic factor. The current staging system needs refinement, especially to separate aggressive from indolent disease in stage IV patients and to select patients who need adjuvant treatment after complete surgical resection. Regarding the latter, assessing the proliferation index Ki-67 seems the best tool currently available. Genomic profiling is expected to become of clinical relevance in the future. Medical therapy is centred on the adrenolytic drug mitotane, which carries considerable toxicity and is not easy to manage. Its tolerability and long plasma level build-up phase may be improved by therapeutic drug monitoring based on pharmacokinetic modelling and intensive counselling of patients. Current chemotherapy regimens can offer disease stabilization in about 50% of patients, but an objective response should be expected in <25%. Research on targeted therapy and immunotherapy is difficult in this rare disease with often heavily pre-treated patients and has not yet been successful. Quality of care should be ensured by treating patients in centres with established experience in multidisciplinary oncologic care, who adhere to prevailing guidelines and state-of-the-art in diagnostic and treatment concepts. International collaboration in fundamental research and clinical trials is the key to further elucidate the pathogenesis and to improve patient care.

Diagnostic Value of Urinary Steroid Profiling in the Evaluation of Adrenal Tumors.

Radiological examination may unexpectedly reveal an adrenal mass. Current algorithms for differentiating between benign and malignant lesions mainly rely on size and densitometry on unenhanced CT, which have limited specificity. We examined the diagnostic value of urinary steroid profiling by gas chromatography/mass-spectrometry (GC/MS) in differentiating between benign and malignant adrenal tumors. A retrospective study in two referral centers for patients with adrenal disease was performed. All urinary steroid profiles ordered for evaluation of an adrenal tumor between January 2000 and November 2011 were examined. Patients were diagnosed with adrenal cortical carcinoma (ACC), adrenal cortical adenoma (ACA), or other adrenal mass. Results of hormonal measurements, imaging studies, pathology reports, and clinical outcome were retrieved from medical records. The diagnostic value of individual urinary steroid metabolites was determined by receiver operating characteristics analysis. Cut-off values were compared to reference values from an age and gender-standardized population of healthy controls. Eighteen steroid metabolites were excreted in significantly higher concentrations in patients with ACC (n = 27) compared to patients with ACA (n = 107) or other adrenal conditions (n = 18). Tetrahydro-11-deoxycortisol (THS) at a cut-off value of 2.35 µmol/24 h differentiated ACC from other adrenal disorders with 100% sensitivity and 99% specificity. Elevated urinary excretion of THS was associated with a very high sensitivity and specificity to differentiate between an ACC and a benign adrenal mass. Urinary steroid profiling might be a useful diagnostic test for the evaluation of patients with an adrenal incidentaloma.

Short-term variation in plasma mitotane levels confirms the importance of trough level monitoring.

OBJECTIVE: Mitotane is the drug of choice in patients with adrenocortical carcinoma. The anti-neoplastic effect is correlated with mitotane plasma levels, which render it crucial to reach and maintain the concentration above 14 mg/l. However, mitotane pharmacokinetics is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the variation in plasma mitotane levels during the day and the influence of a single morning dose. DESIGN: A prospective case-control study was conducted to investigate the variation in plasma mitotane levels. METHODS: Patients who had been treated for at least 24 weeks and had reached the therapeutic plasma level (14 mg/l) at least once were eligible. In the first group, mitotane levels were determined hourly for the duration of 8 h after administration of a single morning dose. In the second group, mitotane levels were assessed similarly without administration of a morning dose. RESULTS: Ten patients were included in this study, and three patients participated in both groups. Median plasma level at baseline was 16.2 mg/l (range 11.3-23.3 mg/l) in the first group (n=7) and 17.0 mg/l (13.7-23.8) in the second group (n=6). Plasma levels displayed a median increase compared with baseline of 24% (range 6-42%) at t=4 after morning dose and a change of 13% (range -14 to 33%) at t=4 without morning dose (P=0.02). CONCLUSION: A substantial increase in mitotane plasma levels was observed in steady-state patients within a period of 8 h after morning dosing. Without morning dose, mitotane curves showed a variable profile throughout the day. This implies that random sampling could yield incidentally high levels. For this reason, we recommend early-morning trough sampling as standard management in monitoring mitotane treatment.

Adrenocortical carcinoma in children: first population-based clinicopathological study with long-term follow-up.

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is rare in both adult and pediatric populations. Literature suggests significant differences between children and adults in presentation, histological properties and outcome. The aim of this first nationwide study on pediatric ACC was to describe the incidence, presentation, pathological characteristics, treatment and survival in The Netherlands. All ACC patients aged <20 years at diagnosis and registered in the population-based Netherlands Cancer Registry between 1993 and 2010 were included. Clinical data were extracted from medical records. Archival histological slides were collected via the Dutch Pathology Registry (PALGA). We compared our findings to all clinical studies on pediatric ACC that were found on PubMed. Based on the results, 12 patients were identified: 8 females and 4 males. The median age was 4.1 years (range 1.1-18.6). The population-based age-standardized incidence rate for patients <20 years was 0.18 per million person-years. Autonomous hormonal secretion was present in 10 patients. Seven patients were aged ≤4 years at diagnosis, 5 presented with localized disease and 2 with locally advanced disease. Five patients were aged ≥5 years, 3 presented with distant metastases and 1 with locally advanced disease. For all patients, histological examination displayed malignant characteristics. All patients aged ≤4 years at diagnosis survived; the median follow-up was 97 months (57-179 months). All patients aged ≥5 years died; the median survival was 6 months (0-38 months). Pediatric ACC is extremely rare in the Western world. The clinical outcome was remarkably better in patients aged ≤4 years. This is in accordance with less advanced stage of disease at presentation, yet contrasts with the presence of adverse histological characteristics. Clinical management in advanced disease is adapted from adult practice in the absence of evidence regarding pediatric ACC.

Surgery for adrenocortical carcinoma in The Netherlands: analysis of the national cancer registry data.

OBJECTIVE: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare disease with an estimated incidence of one to two cases per 1 million inhabitants. The Dutch Adrenal Network (DAN) was initiated with the aim to improve patient care and to stimulate scientific research on ACC. Currently, not all patients with ACC are treated in specialized DAN hospitals. The objective of the current investigation was to determine whether there are differences in survival between patients operated on in DAN hospitals and those operated on in non-DAN hospitals. DESIGN: The study was set up as a retrospective and population-based survival analysis. METHODS: Data on all adult ACC patients diagnosed between 1999 and 2009 were obtained from The Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR). Overall survival was calculated and a comparison was made between DAN and non-DAN hospitals. RESULTS: The NCR contained data of 189 patients. The median survival of patients with European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors stages I-III disease was significantly longer for patients operated on in a DAN hospital (n=46) than for those operated on in a non-DAN hospital (n=37, 5-year survival 63 vs 42%). Survival remained significantly different after correction for sex, age, year of diagnosis, and stage of disease in the multivariate analysis (hazard ratio 1.96 (95% CI 1.01-3.81), P=0.047). CONCLUSION: The results associate surgery in a DAN center with a survival benefit for patients with local or locally advanced ACC. We hypothesize that a multidisciplinary approach for these patients explains the observed survival benefit. These findings should be carefully considered in view of the aim for further centralization of ACC treatment.