To investigate age-specific characteristics of adrenal tumors in older adults and to identify predictors for adrenal malignancy.
Approach:
Study Design: Retrospective analysis of inpatients ≥60 years old with adrenal tumors evaluated at a large medical center from January 2011 to December 2023.
Patient Population: 559 patients (21.2% of 2,633 inpatients) were eligible for analysis, with a median age of 64 years.
Data Collection: Demographic data, tumor size, and CT attenuation were recorded, along with hormonal evaluations.
Key Findings:
58.7% of patients were incidentally diagnosed.
Median tumor size was 29 mm, and median CT attenuation was 15.0 HU.
19.0% of cases were malignant, with adrenal metastases being the most common (59.4% of malignant cases).
Predictors for adrenal malignancy included incidental discovery, male gender, bilateral tumors, older age, higher HU, and lower weight.
The optimal cutoff values for predicting malignancy were age=67.5 years, size=42.5 mm, and CT attenuation=20.5 HU.
Interpretation:
Limitations:
The study is retrospective, which may limit the ability to draw causal inferences.
Multidisciplinary decision-making processes for surgical indications were not systematically retrieved.
Researchers found larger biological age gaps in more recent birth cohorts and observed associations with higher risk of several cancers diagnosed before age 55.
