Surgical management of adrenal metastases from lung cancer

Adrenal metastases from lung cancer usually indicate systemic disease and incurability. However, a small subset of patients with isolated adrenal metastases may achieve long-term survival with aggressive surgical resection of the adrenal gland. To clarify the role of adrenalectomy for metastatic lung cancer, we undertook a review of the published literature on this topic.

The English-language medical literature was searched for papers reporting surgical resection of adrenal metastases from lung cancer. Eleven articles were retrieved and their data pooled for analysis.

Sixty patients (including seven previously reported from our institution) formed the basis of this collective review. Thirty-two patients pooled from small series and case reports had a median survival of 24 months, and approximately one-third were 5-year survivors. Twenty-eight patients reported in two large series had a less favorable survival (approximately 14 months median survival).

Surgical resection of isolated adrenal metastases from lung cancer appears to have a modest survival advantage over nonoperative therapy, and it occasionally results in long-term survival. However, the relatively encouraging survival results reported in the literature could be related to careful patient selection for this aggressive therapy, publication bias in favor of positive treatment outcomes, or a combination of the two. Nevertheless, the results are encouraging enough to justify further investigation of this aggressive treatment strategy. Practical guidelines for management are proposed.