Adrenocortical Carcinoma and CT Assessment of Therapy Response: The Value of Combining Multiple Criteria

We evaluated tumor response at Computed Tomography (CT) according to three radiologic criteria: RECIST 1.1, CHOI and tumor volume in 34 patients with metastatic adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) submitted to standard chemotherapy. These three criteria agreed in defining partial response, stable or progressive disease in 24 patients (70.5%). Partial response (PR) was observed in 29.4%, 29.4% and 41.2% of patients according to RECIST 1.1, CHOI and tumor volume, respectively. It was associated with a favorable prognosis, regardless of the criterion adopted. The concordance of all the 3 criteria in defining the disease response identified 8 patients (23.5%) which displayed a very good prognosis: median progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) 14.9 and 37.7 months, respectively. Seven patients (20.6%) with PR assessed by one or two criteria, however, still had a better prognosis than non-responding patients, both in terms of PFS: median 12.3 versus 9.9 months and OS: 21 versus 12.2, respectively. In conclusions, the CT assessment of disease response of ACC patients to chemotherapy with 3 different criteria is feasible and allows the identification of a patient subset with a more favorable outcome. PR with at least one criterion can be useful to early identify patients that deserve continuing the therapy.