Case Report: Challenges on diagnosis and therapy of malignant adrenal oncocytic neoplasm

Background: Adrenal masses are common incidental findings, most of which are benign and non-functional. Malignant adrenal tumors, however, differ from their benign counterpart and confer poor prognosis. In addition, the oncocytic variants of these tumors present challenges to clinicians owing to their unique biologic behavior and rarity. Case presentation: We present a case report of a 61-year-old male with a T2N0M0 adrenocortical oncocytic neoplasm of the right adrenal gland. The patient complained of worsening right upper quadrant abdominal pain and was diagnosed with a right adrenal mass after an abdominal CT-scan examination two weeks before. Subsequently, the patient underwent open adrenalectomy due to a history of abdominal surgery. Due to unique oncocytic biologic behavior, we used the Lin–Weiss–Bisceglia criteria to predict a malignancy instead of the Weiss system. We only found one malignant criterion, which showed a small tumor invasion on the vascular bed on one histopathological section. Thus, we diagnosed it as malignant adrenocortical oncocytic neoplasm. Furthermore, the PET Scan showed no residual mass or pathological metabolic activity on the tumor bed and metastatic sign. Conclusions: The diagnosis of the malignant oncocytic adrenal case is based on the histopathological criteria. Based on this case, we suggest a thorough histopathological examination to determine malignant criteria in adrenal neoplasm cases.