Impact of Regional Lymph Node Dissection on Disease Specific Survival in Adrenal Cortical Carcinoma

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare malignancy with a poor prognosis. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a more extensive regional lymph node dissection (LND) has on survival in ACC patients in the United States. Patients >= 15 years of age without distant metastases who underwent surgical intervention for primary ACC were identified from the SEER18 registry from 1988-2009. Patients were divided into 2 groups: having a regional LND (>= 5 LNs removed) vs. no-LND (0-4 LNs removed). Overall survival (OS) and disease specific survival (DSS) were compared between groups. Of 259 patients with complete data on nodal resection, 243 (93.8 %) underwent no-LND and 16 (6.2 %) LND. There was no difference in age, sex, metastases, or ENSAT stage between groups. However, LND patients had larger tumors (p = 0.004), and more frequently underwent en-bloc surgery (p = 0.002). One-and 3-year OS and DSS did not differ between groups. In a cox regression model, performance of a regional LND did not significantly influence DSS. However, female gender (HR: 1.67, CI: 1.04-2.69, p = 0.033) and later stage (stage III-HR: 4.78, CI: 1.14-20.00, p = 0.032) or positive LNs (HR: 5.92, CI: 2.05-17.08, p = 0.001) were risk factors for worse DSS. Regional LND may not improve DSS or OS in nonmetastatic ACC patients undergoing adrenalectomy. It remains controversial as an essential part of the surgical management for ACC and deserves further investigation in a larger, prospective study. However, regional LND should still be considered for staging and prognostic purposes and to standardize surgical care.