Chromaffin cell biology: inferences from The Cancer Genome Atlas

Pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PCC/PGLs) are rare neuroendocrine tumors that are unusually diverse in metabolic profiles, in classes of molecular alterations and across a large number of altered genes. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) comprehensively profiled the molecular landscape of PCC/PGLs and identified novel genomic alterations and a new molecular classification of PCC/PGLs. In this review, we discuss the significant clinico-molecular findings of this integrated profiling study. We then review the molecular data of the TCGA cohort centering around known markers of sympathoadrenal cell lineage to better understand chromaffin cell biology. This analysis adds a new layer, that of chromaffin cell type, onto the published molecular classifications and in doing so provides inferences about underlying chromaffin cell biology and diversity.