Sonographically guided fine-needle aspiration biopsies of adrenal masses in lung cancer patients, eleven-year experience

The adrenal glands are a common site for the metastatic spread of lung cancer.1 The metastases in the adrenal glands are often detected at the time of setting the basic diagnosis. As they are usually asymptomatic,2 the only reliable method to confirm the metastases is diagnostic imaging. The majority of them are detected by chest and upper abdomen CT or by abdominal ultrasound (US) examination. The improvement of US technology allows visualization of slightly enlarged adrenal glands, with the exception of the scans in obese and meteoristic persons. Any enlargement of the adrenal glands should be explained because benign changes could be detected in healthy individuals.3,4 In addition, there are many reports on high percentage of the benign cytology findings of fine-needle asRadiol Oncol 2004; 38(3): 177-80.