Pathological study of adrenocortical carcinomas in Japan

Research Project

Project/Area Number	60480146
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Human pathology
Research Institution	Nagasaki University
Principal Investigator	TSUCHIYAMA Hideo Professor, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, 医学部, 教授 (80039487)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	KAWAI Kioko Assistant Professor, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, 医学部, 助教授 (70039535)
Project Period (FY)	1985 – 1986
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1986)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,200,000) Fiscal Year 1986: ¥1,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000) Fiscal Year 1985: ¥1,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000)
Keywords	Adrenocortical carcinoma / statistics / Histological type / Grade of differentiation / Vimentin / サイトケラチン
Research Abstract	Two hundred-twenty six autopsy cases of adrenocortical carcinomas were seen at "Annual of the pathological autopsy cases in Japan" from 1966 and 1982. They consist of 148 males and 78 females ranging in age from 3 to 84 years; about 80 % of the cases were found over 40 years of age. The present observed series of 91 cases were collected from these 226 cases of adrenocortical carcinomas. 1. A variable histologic pattern is seen not only between tumors but also in the same lesion. Predominant features were classified into four types; trabecular or sheet-like (35 cases, 38.5 %), alveolar (15 cases. 16.5 %), diffuse (40 cases, 43.9 %) and sarcomatous (1 case, 1.1 %). There was no distinct relation between histological type and functioning or nonfunctioning tumors. 2. The difference in survival between cases with differentiated tumors and those with anaplastic tumors was significant in post-operative state (P<0.05). 3. Mitotic activity was increased corresponding to the increase of hitologic grading in adrenocortical carcinomas. 4. Forty two (70 %) of 60 cases were positive immunohistochemically for vimentin and positive cells were diffusely distributed. Positive rate for vimentin in differentiated carcinoma was less than that of anaplastic carcinoma. 5. Twenty six (40.6 %) of 64 cases were positive for cytokeratin and this frequency was low compared with that of vimentin. However, a tendency of positive rate according to the grade of differentiation was almost same fashion.