Who can safely discontinue lifelong follow‐up among patients with sporadic pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma?

BACKGROUND: Current guidelines recommend at least 10 years of follow-up for all pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma (PPGL) patients and lifelong monitoring for high-risk individuals. Nonetheless, data identifying patients who may not require routine lifelong follow-up are scarce. METHODS: Among 999 patients with PPGL, 703 who were non-metastatic, non-hereditary, and had undergone complete resection were included. Variables that significantly differed between the recurrence (n = 50) and non-recurrence groups over 10 years (n = 83) were identified, and cutoff values were determined using receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis. These very low-risk criteria were validated in an internal cohort and an external dataset from the National Institutes of Health. RESULTS: The non-recurrence group was older and had smaller pheochromocytomas (PCCs) than the recurrence group, with cutoffs of 37 years and 5.7 cm, respectively. The non-recurrence group had a higher percentage of patients with pheochromocytoma of the adrenal gland scaled score (PASS)