Background: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most common cause of secondary hypertension. The main aims of this paper were to review outcome after surgical versus medical treatment of PA and partial versus total adrenalectomy in patients with PA. Cutting edge articles are invited by the BJS Editorial Team, and focus on how current research and innovation will affect future clinical practice.

Pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma (PPGL) are rare tumours and at least 30% are part of hereditary syndromes. Approximately 20% of hereditary PPGL are caused by pathogenic germ line variants in genes of the succinate dehydrogenase complex (SDHx), TMEM127 or MAX. Herein we present guidelines regarding genetic testing of family members and their surveillance based on a thorough literature review. All cases of PPGL are recommended genetic testing for germ line variants regardless of patient and family characteristics. At minimum, FH, NF1, RET, SDHB, SDHD and VHL should be tested. In addition, testing of MEN1, SDHA, SDHAF2, SDHC, TMEM127 and MAX is recommended. Healthy first‐degree relatives (and second‐degree relatives in the case of SDHD and SDHAF2 which are maternally imprinted) should be offered carrier testing. Carriers of pathogenic variants should be offered surveillance with annual biochemical measurements of methoxy‐catecholamines and bi‐annual rapid whole‐body magnetic resonance imaging and clinical examination. Surveillance should start 5 years before the earliest age of onset in the family and thus only children eligible for surveillance should be offered pre‐symptomatic genetic testing. The surveillance of children younger than 15 years needs to be individually designed. Our guidelines will provide a framework for patient management with the possibility to follow outcome via national registries and/or follow‐up studies. Together with improved insights into the disease, this may enable optimisation of the surveillance scheme in order to minimise both anxiety and medical complications while ensuring early disease detection.

No abstract

Circulating cell-free tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a promising biomarker in cancer. Ultrasensitive technologies enable detection of low (< 0.1%) mutant allele frequencies, a pre-requisite to fully utilize the potential of ctDNA in cancer diagnostics. In addition, the entire liquid biopsy workflow needs to be carefully optimized to enable reliable ctDNA analysis. Here, we discuss important considerations for ctDNA detection in plasma. We show how each experimental step can easily be evaluated using simple quantitative PCR assays, including detection of cellular DNA contamination and PCR inhibition. Furthermore, ctDNA assay performance is also demonstrated to be affected by both DNA fragmentation and target sequence. Finally, we show that quantitative PCR is useful to estimate the required sequencing depth and to monitor DNA losses throughout the workflow. The use of quality control assays enables the development of robust and standardized workflows that facilitate the implementation of ctDNA analysis into clinical routine.

adrenal lesions are under-reported in clinical practice. Prevalence figures for adrenal incidentalomas should therefore be interpreted with caution, especially in multi-center settings.