How often are incidental adrenal lesions detected on cross sectional imaging?
Adrenal incidentalomas are encountered in up to 7% of cross-sectional imaging studies and increase in prevalence with increasing age. Fifty percent to 80% of adrenal incidentalomas are secondary to nonhyperfunctioning adrenal adenomas (the most common cause), 5% to 10% are secondary to adrenal myelolipomas (the second most common cause), and up to 5% are secondary to adrenal pheochromocytoma (the third most common cause). In patients without a history of cancer, adrenal incidentalomas are rarely malignant in etiology. However, in patients with a history of cancer, up to 50% of incidentally detected adrenal lesions are malignant in nature, most often secondary to metastatic disease.
