Adrenal Metastasis from Uterine Cancer

This week, I had the honor of operating on a 59-year-old woman with an unfortunate history of stage 4 cancer arising from her uterus.

She had undergone massive surgery with removal of her uterus, ovaries as well as other organs in her pelvis. She had done quite well for some time but follow-up scans showed a large mass on her left adrenal gland.

Additional scans showed no other evidence of metastasis (meaning spread of the cancer) except to the left adrenal gland. Whenever there is an isolated metastasis to the adrenal gland, surgery is recommended.

She traveled from the Midwest to the Carling Adrenal Center in Tampa to have her surgery. Review her CT scan with me here, showing a large left adrenal mass as well as what the mass looks like after it was removed.

The patient had a Mini Back Scope Adrenalectomy, and even though the tumor was very large (9 cm, Fig 1), the operation took less than 30 minutes.

The patient very much benefited from having surgery through the back as supposed to through the abdomen. Having the Mini Back Scope Adrenalectomy meant that we could avoid all the scar tissue from her previous cancer operation of her uterine cancer.

She flew back home a couple of days later and will continue to be closely followed by her local oncologist.