Adrenocortical carcinoma: a 15-year survival after complete resection and repeated resection. A retrospective study in a patient with an expected poor prognosis

Abstract

Adrenocortical carcinoma is a rare but aggressive malignancy with metastases being present in 30-40% of cases at the time of diagnosis. A number of prognostic factors have been identified in patients with adrenocortical carcinoma, but criteria predicting survival are not uniform. We report the case of a 58-year-old man with a large, non-functioning and poorly-differentiated adrenocortical carcinoma who, according to current knowledge, was expected to have a short survival. On the contrary, the prompt diagnosis and curative resection of the primary tumour, together with two reoperations for local recurrences, allowed a 15-year survival and a good quality of life. A revision of both clinical and histological prognostic factors is therefore needed in patients with this type of malignancy.