Adrenal metastases: clinical manifestations and surgical outcomes

Background. The adrenal glands are one of the most common sites of metastases in malignant disease, particularly lung cancer. The frequency of adrenal metastasis in patients with breast cancer and lung cancer reaches 39 and 35 % respectively.

Materials and methods. A total of 156 patients with adrenal tumors underwent surgical treatment in the Siberian State Medical University between December 1998 and July 2017. The study included 16 (10.2 %) patients (9 males and 7 females) with adrenal metastases. The mean age of study participants was 57.6 years (range: 44–73 years).

Results. By the moment of surgery, the mean metastatic adrenal tumor size was 4.9 ± 3.0 cm (range: 1.0–10.2 cm). Thirteen out of 16 patients had adrenal metastases from renal cell carcinoma, one patient – from colon cancer, one patient – from lung cancer, and one patient – from breast cancer. Nine patients had left-sided adrenal metastases, whereas six patients had right-sided adrenal metastases. Synchronous adrenal metastasis was detected in two cases: one patient had adrenal metastasis at the side of the renal tumor; the other one had bilateral renal cell carcinoma with both adrenal glands affected.

We identified three main variants of the disease course according to prevailing clinical manifestations of adrenal metastasis: no manifestations, pain syndrome, and arterial hypertension.

Seven participants had no clinical manifestations; of them, 6 patients had renal cell carcinoma, whereas 1 patient had breast cancer. The mean time between surgical removal of the primary tumor and detection of adrenal metastases was 24.1 months; the mean tumor size was 4.5 cm.

Pain syndrome was observed in 5 patients. In three of them, adrenal metastases derived from renal cell carcinoma, in one patient – from lung cancer, and in one patient – from colon cancer. The mean time between removal of the primary tumor and detection of adrenal metastases was 19.8 months; the mean tumor size was 5.4 cm.

Arterial hypertension was diagnosed in four patients. The mean time between removal of the primary tumor and identification of adrenal metastases was 27.3 months; the mean tumor size was 4.1 cm. The five-year overall survival rate in operated patient was 47.8 %.

Conclusion. Regular examinations of patients after surgical treatment of malignant tumors are needed to detect adrenal metastases; surgery can extend the patient’s life.

 can extend the patient’s life.

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