A giant solitary fibrous tumor of the adrenal gland in a 13-year old: a case report and review of the literature

Solitary fibrous tumors are tumors of mesenchymal origin that occur in the extremities and occasionally in pleura, meninges, and so on, but are extremely rare in the adrenal gland. Their biological behavior is variable but mostly benign.

A 13-year-old Oromo girl presented with a progressively increasing right upper abdominal mass of 3 years’ duration. She had dull dragging pain and an occasional low-grade fever. On examination she had 20 × 20 cm mass with well-defined medial and inferior border. Both ultrasound and computed tomography scan showed a highly vascularized mass arising from her right adrenal gland but she had neither the constitutional symptoms of a functional adrenal tumor nor an abnormal biochemical test. Surgical resection showed a vascularized mass with attachments to the right lobe of the liver with a weight of 1900 g. It was found to be a giant solitary fibrous tumor of her right adrenal gland with infrequent mitosis. She stayed for 5 days after surgery and was discharged. She showed remarkable recovery at follow-up at 3 months.

Although very rare, solitary fibrous tumor of the adrenal gland should be considered in differential diagnosis of adrenal masses.