Long-term survival after complete resection of melanoma metastatic to the adrenal gland.
BACKGROUND
Survival of patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer stage IV melanoma is generally poor, although there are occasional long-term survivors who have undergone surgical resection of a limited number of metastases. In the study, we examined the outcome of patients with adrenal gland metastases.


METHODS
Eighty-three patients with adrenal metastases were identified from our computerized melanoma database of 8250 patients. Univariate and multivariate analyses for overall survival differences were performed by using proportional hazards modeling.


RESULTS
Median survival for the 83 patients was 9.3 months (1-67 months). Of the 27 patients who underwent surgical exploration, 18 (66%) were rendered clinically free of disease by adrenalectomy alone (12 cases) or by adrenalectomy and resection of additional disease (6 cases). Nine patients underwent palliative adrenal resection. Median survival was 25.7 months after complete resection compared with 9.2 months after palliative resection (P = .02).


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with adrenal metastases from melanoma, either isolated or with a limited number of additional metastases, may benefit from surgical resection if all visible disease can be removed. Patients with unresectable extra-adrenal disease achieve no survival benefit from adrenalectomy.
Haigh
P I
PI
Roy E. Coats Research Laboratories and the Division of Surgical Oncology, John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John's Health Center, Santa Monica, California 90404, USA.
Essner
R
R
Wardlaw
J C
JC
Stern
S L
SL
Morton
D L
DL
D000310:Adrenal Gland Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery; D000315:Adrenalectomy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D016019:Survival Analysis; D017741:Survivors