Prognosis and survival for adrenal gland cancer
A prognosis is the doctor's best estimate of how cancer will affect you and how it will respond to treatment. Survival is the percentage of people with a disease who are alive at some point in time after their diagnosis. Prognosis and survival depend on many factors.
The doctor will look at certain aspects of the cancer as well as characteristics of the person. These are called prognostic factors. The doctor will also look at predictive factors, which influence how a cancer will respond to a certain treatment and how likely it is that the cancer will come back after treatment.
Prognostic and predictive factors are often discussed together. They both play a part in deciding on a prognosis and a treatment plan just for you. Only a doctor familiar with your medical history, the type and stage and size of the cancer and other features of the cancer, the treatments chosen and the response to treatment can put all of this information together with survival statistics to arrive at a prognosis and chances of survival.
The following are prognostic and predictive factors for adrenal gland cancer.
Stage
The stage of adrenal gland cancer is the most important factor in arriving at a prognosis.
A lower stage adrenal gland cancer has a better prognosis than a higher stage adrenal gland cancer.
If the cancer has spread into the major blood vessels, the prognosis is less favourable.
Heavier tumours have a poorer prognosis than smaller, lighter tumours.
Removed with surgery
Tumours that can be completely removed with surgery (called resectable tumours) have a more favourable prognosis. Tumours that can't be fully removed with surgery (called unresectable tumours) have a poorer prognosis.
Type of tumour
The prognosis changes depending on the type of adrenal gland tumour.
Tumours that start in the adrenal medulla (called pheochromocytomas) have a better prognosis than tumours that start outside the adrenal gland (called extra-adrenal pheochromocytomas, or paragangliomas).
Tumours that produce hormones (called functional tumours) have a more favourable prognosis than tumours that don't produce hormones (called non-functional tumours). The prognosis for functional tumours may be better because they cause symptoms associated with too much production of certain hormones and so may be diagnosed earlier.
Tumours that produce too much cortisol (called Cushing syndrome) have a less favourable prognosis than other functional tumours. This could be because Cushing syndrome often causes poor health.
Grade
Low-grade adrenocortical carcinomas (ACC) have a better prognosis than higher-grade ACCs.