The Role of Biomarkers in Adrenocortical Carcinoma: A Review of Current Evidence and Future Perspectives
1
Department of Nephrology and Hemodialysis, University Hospital of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia
2
Department of Pathophysiology, University of Split School of Medicine, 21000 Split, Croatia
3
Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders, University Hospital of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Chitra Subramanian
Biomedicines 2021, 9(2), 174; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9020174
Received: 29 December 2020
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Revised: 7 February 2021
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Accepted: 8 February 2021
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Published: 10 February 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Adrenocortical Carcinoma: From Pathophysiology to Current and Emerging Therapeutic Approaches)
Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare endocrine malignancy arising from the adrenal cortex often with unexpected biological behavior. It can occur at any age, with two peaks of incidence: in the first and between fifth and seventh decades of life. Although ACC are mostly hormonally active, precursors and metabolites, rather than end products of steroidogenesis are produced by dedifferentiated and immature malignant cells. Distinguishing the etiology of adrenal mass, between benign adenomas, which are quite frequent in general population, and malignant carcinomas with dismal prognosis is often unfeasible. Even after pathohistological analysis, diagnosis of adrenocortical carcinomas is not always straightforward and represents a great challenge for experienced and multidisciplinary expert teams. No single imaging method, hormonal work-up or immunohistochemical labelling can definitively prove the diagnosis of ACC. Over several decades’ great efforts have been made in finding novel reliable and available diagnostic and prognostic factors including steroid metabolome profiling or target gene identification. Despite these achievements, the 5-year mortality rate still accounts for approximately 75% to 90%, ACC is frequently diagnosed in advanced stages and therapeutic options are unfortunately limited. Therefore, imperative is to identify new biological markers that can predict patient prognosis and provide new therapeutic options.
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Keywords:
adrenocortical carcinoma; biomarkers; steroidogenesis; pathophysiology; hormones; steroid profiling; microRNA; next-generation sequencing; prognosis; survival
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MDPI and ACS Style
Mizdrak, M.; Tičinović Kurir, T.; Božić, J. The Role of Biomarkers in Adrenocortical Carcinoma: A Review of Current Evidence and Future Perspectives. Biomedicines 2021, 9, 174. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9020174
AMA Style
Mizdrak M, Tičinović Kurir T, Božić J. The Role of Biomarkers in Adrenocortical Carcinoma: A Review of Current Evidence and Future Perspectives. Biomedicines. 2021; 9(2):174. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9020174
Chicago/Turabian StyleMizdrak, Maja, Tina Tičinović Kurir, and Joško Božić. 2021. "The Role of Biomarkers in Adrenocortical Carcinoma: A Review of Current Evidence and Future Perspectives" Biomedicines 9, no. 2: 174. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9020174
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