Aldosterone-producing adrenocortical carcinoma metastases found seven years after adrenalectomy

We report a case of metastatic adrenocortical carcinoma detected 7 years after adrenalectomy. A 52-year-old woman, who had undergone adrenalectomy for an aldosterone-producing adrenocortical carcinoma at age 45, was found on examination by computerized tomography to have enlarged paraaortic lymph nodes. These nodes were surgically resected, and the histological diagnosis from the resected tissue was metastatic adrenocortical carcinoma. The patient has now survived for more than 9 years following the original adrenalectomy. Evidence suggests that this was a slow-growing tumor, because the primary tumor was sharply demarcated and the metastases were found 7 years after the original operation. We believe that aggressive surgical resection of metastatic lesions could lead to prolonged survival in patients with adrenocortical carcinomas of this type.