Management of intravenous extensions of endocrine tumors and prognosis after surgical treatment.

The capacity of endocrine neoplasms to give rise to intravenous tumor extensions is a feature that is recognized preoperatively by the use of venography employed primarily for tumor localization. A series of adrenocortical tumors, a pheochromocytoma and an extraadrenal chromaffin tumor are reported in which the intravenous tumor component was recognized and the surgical approach was modified to include extirpation of the intravascular tumor. Although intravenous tumor propagation has implied a grave prognosis because of the possibility of blood-borne metastases from the intravascular tumor or physiologic disruption from clot or tumor embolus, resection designed for cure, including distal venous control and tumor thrombectomy, was carried out in each patient. Wider application of preoperative venography enables recognition of these intravenous neoplastic extensions from endocrine tumors; the results of surgical management suggest that this invasive feature should not be a grave prognostic indicator that inhibits attempt at operative eradication of the primary tumor and its intravenous extension.