Conventional chemotherapy and emerging targeted therapy for advanced adrenocortical carcinoma

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare but typically aggressive malignancy. Radical surgery remains the potentially curative option. However, about one third of patients initially present with distant metastases. Regarding to chemotherapy, mitotane alone or in combination with cytotoxic drugs should be the first selection. Meanwhile, a phase lll clinical trial of etoposide, doxorubicin, cisplatin plus mitotane or streptozotocin plus mitotane is currently undergoing worldwide. The study on molecular pathogenesis of ACC is progressing. A lot of targeted therapies are also enrolled in preclinical investigations and clinical trials, including small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors, antiangiogenic compounds. This article introduced the conventional chemotherapy, newly developed targeted therapy for advanced ACC.