Molecular genetic aspects of adrenocortical cancer

Abstract

Adrenocortical cancer is a rare tumor originating from cortical adrenal cells, endowed with aggressive potential, a rapidly progressing course and an unfavorable prognosis. The complexity of early diagnosis of the disease is due to several factors: the variability of clinical manifestations associated with the initial multiregulatory influence of steroid hormones on the body’s homeostasis, the rare occurrence of the tumor and, as a result, the lack of understanding of the molecular mechanisms of its carcinogenesis.The increased interest in recent years among oncologists and endocrinologists in understanding the fundamental and clinical aspects of adrenocortical cancer and the search for potential targets for new drugs has led to a detailed study of the cellular and molecular genetic mechanisms involved in normal adrenal ontogenesis and their role in tumor transformation. This review presents the currently known molecular genetic processes and their mediating auto-, para-, endocrine factors involved in normal adrenal ontogenesis and carcinogenesis. The paper analyzes results of trials published in international and Russian journals on molecular oncology and endocrinology indexed in the PubMed, CyberLeninka, Web of Science, Science Direct and eLIBRARY databases.