Future Directions in Diagnosis, Prognosis and Disease Monitoring of Adrenocortical Carcinoma: Novel Non-Invasive Biomarkers.

Yuling Cheng,Xinbo Yu,Wei Kou,Yu Zhu,Dandan Zhu

doi:10.3389/fendo.2021.811293

Yuling Cheng, Xinbo Yu + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2021.811293

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Abstract

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare endocrine malignancy with frequent metastatic spread and poor prognosis. The disease can occur at any age with unexpected biological behavior. Recent genome-wide studies of ACC have contributed to our understanding of the disease, but diagnosis of ACC remains a challenge, even for multidisciplinary expert teams. Patients with ACC are frequently diagnosed in advanced stages and have limited therapeutic options. Therefore, for earlier diagnosis and better clinical management of adrenocortical carcinoma, specific, sensitive, and minimal invasive markers are urgently needed. Over several decades, great efforts have been made in discovering novel and reliable diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers including microRNAs, steroid profilings, circulating tumor cells, circulating tumor DNAs and radiomics. In this review, we will summarize these novel noninvasive biomarkers and analyze their values for diagnosis, predicting prognosis, and disease monitoring. Current problems and possible future application of these non-invasive biomarkers will also be discussed.

Highlights

Adrenal tumors are common diseases, affecting 3~10% human population [1–3]
The results have suggested that miRNAs may be a promising biomarkers for diagnosis of adrenocortical carcinoma
In another study, circulating miRNAs were evaluated in patients with Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), ACA and adrenal myelolipoma (AML), and no significant difference of miR-483-5p expression was found in ACC and AML samples [36]

Summary

Introduction

Adrenal tumors are common diseases, affecting 3~10% human population [1–3]. The majority of adrenal tumors are small benign nonfunctional adrenocortical adenomas, and a small fraction of adrenal tumors are adrenocortical carcinomas [1, 2]. To find miRNAs biomarkers for diagnosis of ACC, several studies have investigated the different expressions of tissue miRNAs in benign and malignant adrenocortical tumors. In another study, circulating miRNAs were evaluated in patients with ACC, ACA and adrenal myelolipoma (AML), and no significant difference of miR-483-5p expression was found in ACC and AML samples [36].

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