Adrenocortical carcinoma
Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is an aggressive cancer originating in the cortex (steroid hormone-producing tissue) of the adrenal gland.
| Adrenocortical carcinoma | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Adrenal cortical carcinoma, adrenocorticocarcinoma, adrenal cortical cancer, adrenal cortex cancer |
| Micrograph of an adrenocortical carcinoma (left of image – dark blue) and the adrenal cortex it arose from (right-top of image – pink/light blue). Benign adrenal medulla is present (right-middle of image – gray/blue). H&E stain. | |
| Specialty | Oncology |
Adrenocortical carcinoma is remarkable for the many hormonal syndromes that can occur in patients with steroid hormone-producing ("functional") tumors, including Cushing's syndrome, Conn syndrome, virilization, and feminization. Adrenocortical carcinoma has often invaded nearby tissues or metastasized to distant organs at the time of diagnosis, and the overall 5-year survival rate is about 50%.
Adrenocortical carcinoma is a rare tumor, with incidence of one to two per million population annually. It has a bimodal distribution by age, with cases clustering in children under 5 and in adults 30–40 years old. The widely used angiotensin-II-responsive steroid-producing cell line H295R was originally isolated from a tumor diagnosed as adrenocortical carcinoma.