Current Prospects for Adrenocortical Carcinoma Pharmacotherapy

Abstract

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare but very aggressive malignancy of the endocrine system with specific biology characterized frequently by hormonal activity and high aggressiveness, resulting usually in locally-invasive or metastatic disease at the time of initial diagnosis. Despite an intense multidirectional search for novel strategies, there has been no satisfactory improvement in the effectiveness of standard therapy currently used in the clinic. ACC diagnosis usually means poor prognosis. Thus, the necessity to identify and implement novel and more effective treatment of ACC in clinical management remains constantly an ambitious challenge. The review briefly summarizes the current management of adrenocortical carcinoma and focuses mainly on novel prospects for ACC pharmacotherapy, including targeted therapies, immunotherapy and checkpoint inhibitors, theranostics, and at last, the individualized molecular approach based on the exact identification of specific genetic profile of ACC cells using next-generation sequencing methods as the next-generation perspective for precisely personalized therapy.

Keywords: Adrenocortical carcinoma; clinical trials; immunotherapy; personalized molecular therapy; pharmacotherapy; targeted therapy.