Liver resection for hepatic metastases from adrenocortical carcinoma.

Liver metastases from adrenocortical carcinoma are very rare and no clear indications for surgery exist. The aim of the present work was to define surgical indications for these neoplasms. All the patients submitted to hepatic resection for liver metastases from adrenal carcinoma reported in the literature (PubMed source) from 1978 to 2005 were considered for the present study. Forty-eight patients were found in the period of study, but it was only possible to obtain certain data for nine patients (18.7%). The data investigated suggest that metachronous metastases, developed after a minimum of 1 year from the primary tumor, and completely removable, may represent an indication for surgery - although this still needs to be proved.