ADRENALECTOMY FOR A SOLITARY ADRENAL METASTASIS FROM LUNG-CANCER

Background. Several case reports have shown that patients with truly s olitary adrenal gland metastases can undergo resection with long-term survival. Methods. We assessed consecutive patients with operable or o perated non-small cell lung cancer in whom the presence of a unilatera l solitary adrenal metastasis was confirmed histologically. Synchronou s homolateral adrenal metastases were resected at the same time as the non-small cell lung carcinoma through a transphrenic approach. Synchr onous contralateral or metachronous adrenal metastases were resected t hrough an elective approach. Results. Of 598 patients with operable or operated non-small cell lung carcinoma, II had a unilateral solitary adrenal gland metastasis and underwent adrenalectomy with no additiona l mortality Or morbidity. One patient died of late postoperative compl ications and 7 patients died of other distant metastases between 4 and 24 months after adrenalectomy. Two patients are still alive and free of recurrent disease and I patient is still alive with brain metastasi s 66, 6, and 10 months, respectively, after adrenalectomy. Conclusions . In the absence of selection criteria to identify the subgroup of pat ients who will benefit from surgical resection, we suggest the resecti on of synchronous lesions in patients without N2 involvement and the c areful selection of patients with metachronous adrenal metastases acco rding to the evolution of their disease.