Recurrent adrenocortical carcinoma

Abstract

One of the reasons that make this tumor such a threatening disease (actually the second most lethal endocrine neoplasm after anaplastic thyroid carcinoma) is its proneness to both recurrences and distant metastases, very often synchronous with the recurrence itself. In spite of the most careful surgery at the time of first operation in more than 60% of the cases, adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) recurs involving several adjacent and even distant organs. Since it is well known that medical therapy has very poor efficacy (if any) in treating these patients [14], surgery remains the only option, if not for cure, for an acceptable survival in the presence of a recurrent disease.