Adrenocortical carcinoma is a rare tumor afflicting only one or two persons per one million population. It usually occurs in adults, and the median age at diagnosis is 44 years.
Although potentially curable at early stages, only 30% of these malignancies are confined to the adrenal gland at the time of diagnosis.
Because these tumors tend to be found years after they began growing, they have the opportunity to invade nearby organs, spread to distant organs (metastasize) and cause numerous changes in the body because of the excess hormones they produce.
