Temporal Trends in Outcomes in Patients With Adrenocortical Carcinoma: A Multidisciplinary Referral-Center Experience

Context Reporting temporal trends in adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) helps guide management strategies. Objective This work aimed to report the trends in disease burden and clinical outcomes over time that cannot be adequately captured from individual clinical trials. Methods A retrospective study was held of ACC patients seen at a referral cancer center between February 1998 and August 2019. Clinical outcomes were compared between an early cohort (February 1998-June 2007) and a late cohort (July 2007-August 2019). Results A total of 621 patients included with a median age at diagnosis of 49.3 years (range, 0.5-86.6 years). There were 285 (45.9%) patients with hormonal overproduction. More patients in the late cohort had stage IV disease compared to the early cohort (36.8% vs 23.1%; P < .0001). Resection of the primary tumor was performed in 502 patients (80.8%). Complete resection (R0) was more common in the late cohort (165 [60.2%]) than in the early cohort (100 [44.6%]; P = .0005). Of 475 patients with metastatic disease (stage IV or recurrent metastatic disease), 352 (74.1%) received mitotane, 320 (67.4%) received chemotherapy, and 53 (11.2%) received immunotherapy. In the early cohort, 70 (33%) received 2 or more lines of therapy, whereas in the late cohort, 127 (48%) received 2 or more lines of therapy. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rates were 65%, 58%, 45%, and 10% for stage I, II, III, and IV disease, respectively, whereas the 2-year OS rates in patients with stage IV disease was 24% in the early cohort and 46% in the late cohort (P = .01). Conclusion ACC clinical outcomes improved over the past 2 decades as more patients had complete resection or received more lines of systemic therapy.

Automated summary

This study reports that the disease burden and clinical outcomes of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) have improved over the past two decades. More patients underwent complete surgical resection and received multiple lines of systemic therapy, indicating the importance of these advancements for guiding management strategies.