Adjuvant mitotane versus surveillance in low-grade, localised adrenocortical carcinoma (ADIUVO): an international, multicentre, open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial and observational study

BACKGROUND: Adjuvant treatment with mitotane is commonly used after resection of adrenocortical carcinoma; however, treatment remains controversial, particularly if risk of recurrence is not high. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of adjuvant mitotane compared with surveillance alone following complete tumour resection in patients with adrenocortical carcinoma considered to be at low to intermediate risk of recurrence. METHODS: ADIUVO was a multicentre, open-label, parallel, randomised, phase 3 trial done in 23 centres across seven countries. Patients aged 18 years or older with adrenocortical carcinoma and low to intermediate risk of recurrence (R0, stage I-III, and Ki67 ≤10%) were randomly assigned to adjuvant oral mitotane two or three times daily (the dose was adjusted by the local investigator with the target of reaching and maintaining plasma mitotane concentrations of 14-20 mg/L) for 2 years or surveillance alone. All consecutive patients at 14 study centres fulfilling the eligibility criteria of the ADIUVO trial who refused randomisation and agreed on data collection via the European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors adrenocortical carcinoma registry were included prospectively in the ADIUVO Observational study. The primary endpoint was recurrence-free survival, defined as the time from randomisation to the first radiological evidence of recurrence or death from any cause (whichever occurred first), assessed in all randomly assigned patients by intention to treat. Overall survival, defined as time from the date of randomisation to the date of death from any cause, was a secondary endpoint analysed by intention to treat in all randomly assigned patients. Safety was assessed in all patients who adhered to the assigned regimen, which was defined by taking at least one tablet of mitotane in the mitotane group and no mitotane at all in the surveillance group. The ADIUVO trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00777244, and is now complete. FINDINGS: Between Oct 23, 2008, and Dec 27, 2018, 45 patients were randomly assigned to mitotane and 46 to surveillance alone. Because the study was discontinued prematurely, 5-year recurrence-free and overall survival are reported instead of recurrence-free and overall survival as defined in the protocol. 5-year recurrence-free survival was 79% (95% CI 67-94) in the mitotane group and 75% (63-90) in the surveillance group (hazard ratio 0·74 [95% CI 0·30-1·85]). Two people in the mitotane group and five people in the surveillance group died, and 5-year overall survival was not significantly different (95% [95% CI 89-100] in the mitotane group and 86% [74-100] in the surveillance group). All 42 patients who received mitotane had adverse events, and eight (19%) discontinued treatment. There were no grade 4 adverse events or treatment-related deaths. INTERPRETATION: Adjuvant mitotane might not be indicated in patients with low-grade, localised adrenocortical carcinoma considering the relatively good prognosis of these patients, and no significant improvement in recurrence-free survival and treatment-associated toxicity in the mitotane group. However, the study was discontinued prematurely due to slow recruitment and cannot rule out an efficacy of treatment. FUNDING: AIFA, ENSAT Cancer Health F2-2010-259735 programme, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Cancer Research UK, and the French Ministry of Health

Traitement par témozolomide des tumeurs hypophysaires agressives et carcinomes hypophysaires : résultats à court et long terme à partir d’une cohorte française de 31 patients

National audienceIntroduction Le traitement par témozolomide permet une réponse dans 40 à 50 % des tumeurs hypophysaires agressives ou carcinomes, les données à long terme restent rares. Objectif Étudier la réponse précoce (3–6 cycles) et le devenir des patients traités par témozolomide en France à partir d’une enquête rétrospective. Résultats Trente et un patients (F/M = 10/21) : 20 adénomes, 11 carcinomes, 16ACTH, 10PRL, 2GH, 2GH/PRL, 1 non fonctionnel ont bénéficié d’une médiane de 6 cycles (3–24), avec un suivi médian de 18 mois (0–72) après la fin du traitement. La tolérance était correcte (thrombopénie n = 4 ; pancytopénie n = 3). L’âge médian au diagnostic était 40,5 ans (13–76), le délai avant traitement de 6 ans (0–18). Tous les patients ont bénéficié d’une radiothérapie, 27/31 d’une exérèse chirurgicale (1–5). Le TMZ a été initié à la dose de 150–200 mg/j 5 jours par mois, associé à une radiothérapie dans 5 cas. La réponse initiale était bonne : 17/31 (54.8 %), avec des taux similaires entre ACTH (56 %), PRL (50 %), plus importants pour les adénomes (65 %) que les carcinomes (36 %). En fin de traitement, une réponse se poursuivait chez 12/17 après 7,5 (5–24) cycles, 3 patients (ACTH) étaient toujours en rémission après 24 mois (12–36). Tous les seconds essais de témozolomide ont été des échecs (n = 6). Il n’y avait pas de réponse après 5,5 (3–18) cycles chez les 14 non répondeurs avec un taux de décès de 8/14 cas résistants comparativement à 2/17 répondeurs. Conclusion La réponse initiale au témozolomide est satisfaisante mais le maintien du contrôle tumoral sur le long terme rare. La meilleure stratégie thérapeutique pour ces tumeurs hypophysaire reste à défini