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Ann Thorac Surg 2001;71:981-985
© 2001 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
a Clinique Chirurgicale, Hôpital A. Calmette Centre Hospitalier et Universitaire de Lille, Lille, France
Accepted for publication October 18, 2000.
Address reprint requests to Dr Porte, Clinique Chirurgicale, Hôpital Calmette, Bd du Professeur Leclercq, 59037 Lille Cedex, France
e-mail: awurtz{at}chru-lille.fr
| Abstract |
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Methods. We retrospectively studied patients with a solitary adrenal metastasis from NSCLC who had undergone potentially curative resection in eight centers.
Results. Forty-three patients were included. Their adrenal gland metastasis was discovered synchronously with NSCLC in 32 patients, and metachronously in 11. It was homolateral to the NSCLC in 31 patients and contralateral in 12 (p < 0.01). Median survival was 11 months, and 3 patients survived more than 5 years. There was no difference between the synchronous and metachronous groups regarding recurrence rate or survival. Survival was not affected by the homolateral location of the metastasis, the histology of the NSCLC, TNM stage, any adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatment, or, in the metachronous group, a disease-free interval exceeding 6 months.
Conclusions. We confirm the possibility of long-term survival after resection of isolated adrenal metastasis from NSCLC, but no clinical or pathologic criteria were detected to identify patients amenable to potential cure.
| Introduction |
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| Patients and methods |
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Unilateral AM, identified at the time of initial NSCLC diagnosis, were classified as synchronous. Metastases shown to be absent at the time of lung resection were classified as metachronous. Before operation, all patients underwent thoracic, cerebral, and abdominal computed tomographic scan. A positron emission tomographic scan was never performed. Complete resection was defined as the absence of any microscopical tumor after lung and adrenal resection. In patients with synchronous metastasis, the disease-free interval was defined as zero. In patients with metachronous metastasis, it was defined as the time from the resection of the primary NSCLC to adrenalectomy. In both groups, follow-up was calculated from the date of adrenalectomy. Patient survival was expressed by actuarial analysis according to the Kaplan- Meier method, using time zero as the date of adrenalectomy and death as the end point. In both groups, disease-free survival was defined as the interval from the date of adrenalectomy to the date of the last follow-up or diagnosis of disease recurrence. Data are expressed as frequency distributions and simple percentages. Univariate analysis of the selected variables was done by
2 analysis. Multivariate analysis was done with the same variables by Cox regression model. Statistically significant differences were defined as p equal to 0.05 or less. The primary NSCLC variables tested for potential significant association with AM were histology, TN status, and location on the operated lung (superior lobe, inferior lobe). Variables tested for potential influence on survival were primary NSCLC histology, TNM status, synchronous or metachronous group, disease-free interval in the metachronous group, surgical approach to perform adrenalectomy, and any adjuvant or neoadjuvant treatment.
| Results |
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Follow-up and recurrence
The mean follow-up period was 23.79 months (range, 2 to 94 months); it was 20.36 months for synchronous AM, and 25.95 months for metachronous AM. In the metachronous group, the postoperative disease-free interval was 15.7 months (range, 3 to 40 months). Thirty-four of the 43 patients (80%) developed a recurrence of their lung cancer during follow-up, including 15 with synchronous AM (68%) and 19 with metachronous AM (90%, p > 0.05). The cases of recurrence comprised 24 of the 31 patients with homolateral AM (77%) and 10 of the 12 with contralateral AM (83%, p > 0.05). In 19 of the 34 patients who had a lung cancer recurrence (56%), it developed during the 6 months after adrenalectomy, and in 13 (38%), during the first 3 months. The sites of recurrence in the 34 patients are given in Table 2; the disease-free survival period and the recurrence rate for the 43 patients are given in Table 3. In the 7 patients whose recurrence was located in the adrenal gland bed, the AM was resected through lumbotomy in 4 patients, laparotomy in 2, and phrenotomy in 1 patient.
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| Comment |
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Nevertheless, our study, with 3 of 43 long-term survivors and a median survival of 11 months, confirms the data reported by Kim and colleagues [10], who obtained a disease-free survival of 11 months in a series of 37 patients, including 17 with NSCLC. This strengthens the conclusion that surgical resection seems the best option for a potential cure, or at least the best palliative therapy compared to nonsurgical treatments. Accordingly, few reports have been published on the role of radiotherapy on adrenal metastases [1618]. Soffen and colleagues [17] reported the results of palliative radiotherapy in 9 patients with lung carcinoma and an isolated AM, whose median survival was 6 months. Only Miyaji and co-workers [19] reported a case of long-term survival exceeding 34 months after radiotherapy for a metachronous AM, in a patient who underwent resection of the primary NSCLC. Similarly dismal results were recently reported for chemotherapy in two limited series [6, 9], whose median survival periods were less than 6 and 8.5 months, respectively. The longest survival period in these series was 22 months, and there were no long-term survivors.
The main problem of concern is to establish preoperatively that the AM is truly isolated. In the present series, 56% of the patients developed their recurrent lung cancer within the 6 months after adrenalectomy, and 38% within the first 3 months, which reflected the presence of multiple nondetectable lesions at the time of operation, despite complete staging. These early recurrences lead us to conclude first, that the staging modalities were not accurate enough, and second, that cases of advanced NSCLC (ie, stage III), which have a high metastatic potential, should not be surgically treated when associated with isolated AM, despite the nonsignificant incidence of TNM stage on survival in our study. Therefore, we now propose that in patients with stage I or II NSCLC and a supposedly solitary AM, preoperative staging should at least include a positron emission tomographic scan, cerebral magnetic resonance imaging, and mediastinoscopy. For patients with synchronous AM, neoadjuvant chemotherapy can be given, as advocated by Luketich and associates [15]. With regard to operation for AM, simple adrenalectomy seems enough. Dissection of regional lymph nodes of the affected adrenal gland should not always be performed because of this procedures potential morbidity, except when AM is associated with an extraglandular extension which has to be treated by extensive resection of the invaded organs (lymph nodes kidney) through an elective approach. On the contrary, the large number of patients with a recurrence in the adrenal bed regardless of the surgical approach used argues in favor of systematic adjuvant radiotherapy delivered to the adrenal bed.
In conclusion, long-term survival may be achieved in some patients after adrenalectomy for AM from NSCLC in a small percentage of patients, but these cases cannot be identified by any of the preoperative results studied here. Nevertheless, we propose the following prerequisites as a guide to patient selection: (1) complete potential control of the primary NSCLC; (2) exclusion of patients with stage III NSCLC; (3) the most up-to-date explorations before operation, to confirm the solitary nature of the AM and minimize the chances of early recurrence; (4) similar management of synchronous and metachronous AM with regard to staging and operative strategy, and (5) the transdiaphragmatic approach as the method of choice for synchronous AM resection when no other structure is invaded by the neoplastic process.
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