The European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors Staging System (2015): A United States Validation

To test the ability of the 2015 modified version of the European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors staging system (mENSAT) in predicting cancer-specific mortality (CSM), as well as overall mortality (OM) in adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) patients of all stages, in a large-scale, and contemporary United States cohort.

We relied on the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database (2004-2020) to test the accuracy and calibration of the mENSAT and subsequently compared it to the 8th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system (AJCC).

In 858 ACC patients, mENSAT accuracy was 74.7% for 3-year CSM predictions and 73.8% for 3-year OM predictions. The maximum departures from ideal predictions in mENSAT were +17.2% for CSM and +11.8% for OM. Conversely, AJCC accuracy was 74.5% for 3-year CSM predictions and 73.5% for 3-year OM predictions. The maximum departures from ideal predictions in AJCC were -6.7% for CSM and -7.1% for OM.

The accuracy of mENSAT is virtually the same as that of AJCC in predicting CSM (74.7% vs 74.5%) and OM (73.7% vs 73.5%). However, calibration is lower for mENSAT than for AJCC. In consequence, no obvious benefit appears to be associated with the use of mENSAT relative to AJCC in US ACC patients.