Tumor Microenvironment in Functional Adrenocortical Adenomas: Immune Cell Infiltration in Cortisol-producing Adrenocortical Adenoma

The tumor microenvironment plays pivotal roles in various human neoplasms. However, that of benign tumor, particularly hormone-secreting endocrine tumors, has remained virtually unknown. Therefore, we firstly attempted to analyze the tumor microenvironment of autonomous hormone-secreting adrenocortical adenomas. We first histologically evaluated 21 cortisol-producing adrenocortical adenoma (CPA) and 13 aldosterone-producing adrenocortical adenoma (APA) cases. Quantitative histological analysis revealed that intratumoral immune cell infiltration (ICI) was more pronounced in CPAs than APAs.

Source: Human Pathology - March 26, 2018 Category: Pathology Authors: Yuko Kitawaki, Yasuhiro Nakamura, Fumie Kubota-Nakayama, Yuto Yamazaki, Yasuhiro Miki, Shuko Hata, Kazue Ise, Kumi Kikuchi, Ryo Morimoto, Fumitoshi Satoh, Hironobu Sasano Source Type: research