July - September 2017, Volume 13, Issue 3

Pezzani R

Adrenocortical Carcinoma: in the Search for a Pre-Operative Biomarker

Acta Endo (Buc) 2017, 13 (3): 340-341
doi: 10.4183/aeb.2017.340

Adrenocortical tumors (ACT) are common malignancies of the cortex adrenal gland frequently non-functioning and benign. Differently, adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a very rare neoplasia with an incidence of 0.7–2.0 cases per million people and an aggressive behaviour. Moreover ACC shows a poor prognosis with an estimated survival of 16-38%. Only surgery and the use of mitotane (sometime associated to standard chemotherapy) can represent a useful tool to fight against this malignancy, nonetheless ACC often metastasizes and recurs, decreasing considerably patient survival prospect. In the search of new potential tools to combat cancer, in the latest years omics works extended our knowledge on the ACC pathogenesis and made possible the investigation of novel ACC biomarkers. In this field of research, epigenetic studies identified a common signature in ACC, where the most altered miRNA found in ACC (miR-483-5p) seems now to represent a concrete biomarker to be used in the pre-operative diagnosis of ACC. A larger patient cohort is necessary to confirm this pivotal data: collaboration between scientific communities will be the key to determine the success of this fundamental discovery.

Keywords: adrenocortical carcinoma, miRNA, biomarker

Correspondence: Raffaele Pezzani, UO Endocrinology, Dept. Medicine (DIMED), University of Padova, via Ospedale 105, 35128 Padova, Italy. E-mail: raffaele.pezzani@unipd.it