New Diagnostic and Therapeutic Approaches in Adrenocortical Cancer

• Adrenocortical cancer (ACC) is a rare disease that is often difficult to diagnose, and therefore often presents at an advanced stage. Various cytotoxic treatments have been tried with little success. Evaluation of new diagnostic methods and improvement of medical therapies are therefore crucial.The diagnostic potential of 11C-metomidate positron emission tomography (PET) was evaluated in eleven ACC patients. PET visualized all viable tumors with high tracer uptake, including two lesions that CT failed to detect. Necrotic or fibrotic tumors were PET negative. Medication with adrenal steroid inhibitors and chemotherapy may decrease the tracer uptake.We performed a phase-II study with streptozocin and o,p’-DDD (SO) combination therapy in 40 ACC patients. The SO therapy was found to have impact on the disease-free interval (P = 0.02) as well as on survival (P = 0.01) in patients who received adjuvant therapy after curative resection. Complete or partial response was obtained in 36.4% of patients with measurable disease.The efficacy and tolerability of combination therapy with vincristine, cisplatin, teniposide, and cyclophosphamide (OPEC) were evaluated in eleven patients with advanced ACC after failure of SO therapy. The median survival was 21 months from the start of treatment. A partial response was achieved in two patients. Adverse events were mainly restricted to grade 1-2 toxicities, and grade 3 toxicities were observed in only two cycles.We tested 21 ACC tumors to analyze the expression of receptor tyrosine kinases and 15 ACC for mutation analysis of c-Kit exon 11, which can be targeted by antagonists such as imatinib. All ACCs expressed one or more kinases: c-Kit in 19 ACC and phospho-c-Kit in three while 14 ACCs expressed PDGFR-beta, suggesting the potential usefulness of tyrosine kinase inhibitors. No c-Kit mutations were detected in exon 11. Further evaluation of other mutations targeted by this drug may be needed.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Dermatologi och venereologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Dermatology and Venereal Diseases (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Medicine

Adrenocortical cancer

Positron Emission Tomography

Metomidate

Combination chemotherapy

Streptozocin

op'-DDD

OPEC

Disease-free Interval

Survival

Responses

Side effects

Receptor protein-tyrosine kinases

c-Kit

Phospho-c-Kit

PDGFRβ

Mutation

Imatinib

Medicin

Dermatology and venerology,clinical genetics, internal medicine

Dermatologi och venerologi, klinisk genetik, invärtesmedicin

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

dok (ämneskategori)