Lower expression of ATM and gene deletion is more frequent in adrenocortical carcinomas than adrenocortical adenomas

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare endocrine malignancy accounting for approximately 0.02–0.2% of all cancer deaths. The molecular pathogenesis of ACC has been the hot topic of recent reviews but it is still poorly understood. It is imperative to have a better understanding on the pathophysiology of ACC so as to establish precise diagnosis and effective treatment. This study aims to identify the molecular markers between ACCs and adrenocortical adenomas (ACAs). With MLPA, we checked on 10 ACA and 9 ACC tissue samples. The MLPA results showed deletion on chromosomes 18q, 11q, 11p, and 13q and duplication on chromosomes 3q, 4q, 6p, and 19p. There was a significant difference in the number of aberration copies of the ataxia telangiectasia-mutated (ATM) gene located on chromosome 11q22–q23 between ACCs and ACAs. Five out of 9 (56%) ACC specimens had deletion of ATM (P = 0.011). RT-PCR result then demonstrated that ATM mRNA level is lower in ACCs than in ACAs (P < 0.001). In addition, immunohistochemistry (IHC) study of the 19 ACA and 18 ACC samples confirmed lower expression of ATM protein in ACCs than in ACAs (P < 0.001). The study demonstrated that ATM expression was diminished in ACC than in ACA, suggesting an important role of ATM in the tumorigenesis of ACC.