Adrenocortical carcinoma is an aggressive cancer, with an incidence of 0.5-2 per million.
We present a case of adrenocortical carcinoma with all the clinical and partly immunohistochemical features of disseminated undifferentiated lung cancer, and 'accidentally' treated as such. Four cycles of carboplatin-vinorelbine conferred partial response in the adrenal, lung and disappearance of a 2 cm subcutaneous iliac nodule that had appeared suddenly before the first course. Owing to progression, four cycles of carboplatin-pemetrexed were administered inducing partial response and then stable disease for an additional 12 months. As fluoro-d-glucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) only showed activity in the adrenal, laparoscopic adrenalectomy was performed. Three months later FDG-PET revealed a lung nodule unresponsive to carboplatin-pemetrexed, removed by wedge resection. Finally, re-evaluation by a tertiary centre confirmed adrenocortical carcinoma with Ki67-50% in the adrenal and the lung. The patient is alive and tumour free almost 3.5 years after retrospective diagnosis of metastatic adrenocortical cancer.
Written by:
Røe OD, Oppegaard PA, Revheim ME, Svindland A. Are you the author?
Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway; Cancer Clinic, Levanger Hospital, Nord-Trøndelag Health Trust, Levanger, Norway; Department of Oncology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark; Department of Internal Medicine, Levanger Hospital, Levanger, Norway; Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway; Department of Pathology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
Reference: BMJ Case Rep. 2014 Nov 12;2014. pii: bcr2014206225.
doi: 10.1136/bcr-2014-206225
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25391823