Childhood Extracranial Germ Cell Tumors Treatment (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version

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Changes to This Summary (11/20/2018)

The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

General Information About Childhood Extracranial Germ Cell Tumors (GCTs)

Added Cancer Predisposition as a new subsection.

Revised text to state that childhood extracranial GCTs develop at many sites, including testicles, ovaries, mediastinum, retroperitoneum, sacrum, coccyx, and head and neck (cited Dharmarajan et al. as reference 54).

Added presence of gonadal dysgenesis as a prognostic factor for extracranial GCTs.

Added text to state that the development of ovarian nondysgerminomatous tumors is associated with worse outcomes. Also added text about the results of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) AGCT0132 study (cited Thorup et al., Huang et al., and Dicken et al. as references 11, 12, and 13, respectively).

Treatment of Malignant Gonadal GCTs in Children

Added text about the AGCT1532 trial as a treatment option under clinical evaluation for malignant testicular GCTs.

Added text about the AGCT1532 trial as a treatment option under clinical evaluation for malignant ovarian GCTs.

Treatment of Recurrent Malignant GCTs in Children

Revised text to state that in a phase II COG trial, 20 patients younger than 21 years who relapsed after cisplatin, etoposide, and bleomycin (PEb) therapy received two cycles of paclitaxel, ifosfamide, and carboplatin (TIC). Also added text to state that responses were then assessed by a combination of Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST) criteria and marker decline. Eight patients had partial responses, ten patients had stable disease, and two patients had progressive disease. This chemotherapy regimen produced a combined response rate of 44% (cited Pashankar et al. as reference 11).

This summary is written and maintained by the PDQ Pediatric Treatment Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of NCI. The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or NIH. More information about summary policies and the role of the PDQ Editorial Boards in maintaining the PDQ summaries can be found on the About This PDQ Summary and PDQ® - NCI's Comprehensive Cancer Database pages.

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