Patients were mostly women with an average age of 55 years old and private insurance, with a nearly even split of patients with stage I-III (26%) and stage IV ACC (24%). Nearly three-quarters of those studied chose to have surgery, of which 31% chose open resection.
Patients with stage I-III ACC had a significant median survival rate of 63 months, compared with those who did not have surgery who had an average survival of 8 months.
In patients with stage IV ACC, surgery lengthened overall survival to 19 months, compared with 6 months for those without surgery, according to Dr. Tella and fellow investigators.
While surgery did have a greater positive effect on patients’ live spans across all stages, the impact of chemotherapy and radiation was significant only among stage IV patients who had complete surgery.