UNASSIGNED: Germ cell tumours (GCT) are the most common malignancy affecting young adult men. The introduction of cisplatin-based chemotherapy in recent decades has significantly changed the prognosis of these malignant tumours into highly curable cancer, even in the setting of advanced disease. However, in the last decade, the success of these chemotherapy regimens in curing GCTs has been slowed by a growing recognition of their important late toxicities, such as cardiovascular disease.
UNASSIGNED: We present the case of a 23-year-old male, recently diagnosed with a mixed non-seminomatous testicular germinal tumour, on stage IIIA (pT3 cN2 cM1a), with retroperitoneal adenopathies and pulmonary metastases. After performing a right inguinal orchiectomy, he started chemotherapy treatment with cisplatin + etoposide. Shortly after starting treatment, the patient presented an ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome. The cardiac catheterization revealed a non-occlusive thrombus in the middle segment of the right coronary artery. Intracoronary imaging techniques were used to study the arterial wall, which revealed the presence of atherosclerotic plaque that could have ruptured, with the consequent response of platelet aggregation and thrombus formation. Barely 7 months after this event, the patient was again admitted to hospital for pulmonary thromboembolism with pulmonary infarction.
UNASSIGNED: To date, there are two hypotheses linking the association between cisplatin-based chemotherapy and cardiovascular disease. The direct hypothesis argues for the presence of direct chemotherapy-induced vascular damage. The indirect hypothesis, on the other hand, is based on the induction and development of cardiovascular risk factors by chemotherapy. This cardiovascular toxicity of chemotherapy is aggravated by a cancer-induced proinflammatory and prothrombotic state.

Teratomas are neoplasms arising from germ cells and encompass tissues derived from two or more embryonic germ layers, including ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. These tumours typically localize along the midline or in paramedian positions and can manifest as gonadal (20%) or extragonadal (80%) entities. Although gonadal teratomas are uncommon, they represent the predominant type of gonadal tumour in the paediatric population. They comprise approximately 20-25% of all ovarian tumours in females and about 3-5% of all testicular tumours in males. Ovarian teratomas exhibit a higher incidence in early childhood and adolescence, whereas testicular teratomas are more prevalent during the first three months of life and between the ages of 15 and 19. While the majority of paediatric gonadal teratomas are benign, malignant or mixed variants may also arise, necessitating more aggressive therapeutic interventions.

Testicular choriocarcinoma (CC) is the rarest subtype of germ cell tumours (GCTs) of the testis, with a high malignant potential and early haematogenous metastasis. Radical surgical resection should be performed primarily for histological diagnosis, while chemotherapy remains the mainstay of therapy for advanced disease. In the present study, the case of a 65-year-old male patient diagnosed with metastatic testicular CC, who did not fully respond to chemotherapy is reported. This patient underwent surgical removal of the testicular tumour, chemotherapy with etoposide and cisplatin, and radiotherapy of the intracranial lesions. Although the serum human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) levels of the patient and most of the metastases continued decreasing during chemotherapy, complete response was not achieved after six cycles of chemotherapy. The patient refused high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation due to severe side effects, and eventually developed respiratory failure on maintenance therapy with oral etoposide. A literature review was then performed, aiming to summarize the characteristics and therapeutic principles of testicular CC. In addition, the emerging therapeutic agents that could be used in maintenance therapy for GCTs, particularly for testicular CC, were also discussed. The limited clinical trials of targeted treatments showed potential benefit for long survival of patients with selected GCTs with fewer side effects. In particular, immunotherapy showed unique potential for testicular CC in preclinical studies, offering new approaches of maintenance therapy for advanced disease. Further studies should shed light on the identification of prognostic factors that predict the response to immune-based therapy in GCTs.

This article will review current aspects of the histopathological, immunohistochemical and molecular analysis of primary mediastinal germ cell tumours (PMGCTs) as well as their aetiological, epidemiological, clinical and therapeutic features. PMGCTs represent an important differential diagnosis in the spectrum of mediastinal tumours, and their diagnosis is usually made on small tissue samples from core needle biopsies in combination with diagnostic imaging and serum tumour markers. As in lymphomas, a small biopsy is often the only viable tumour sample available from these patients, as they receive chemotherapy prior to eventual surgical resection. Pathologists therefore need to apply an efficient combination of immunohistochemical markers to confirm the diagnosis of a PMGCT and to exclude morphological mimics.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of tumour size and rete testis invasion in progression free survival of our patients with stage I testicular seminoma. A literature review is also made.
A retrospective observational study was performed. We included patients with stage I seminoma between January 2010 and July 2022. Patients without factors of poor prognostic -Group A- were compared with patients with factors of poor prognostic -Group B-. Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank testing were used to compare progression free survival (PFS) between these groups. Statistical significance was considered at P≤.05.
55 patients were included in this study. 20 patients (36.4%) were of good prognostic -Group A- and 35 (63.6%) had factors of poor prognostic -Group B-. The mean age was similar in both groups (mean±standard deviation), 38.62±9.04 years. The mean follow-up time was 63.5±33.6 months. All the patients in group A and 25.7% of the patients in group B underwent active surveillance (AS). 26 patients (74.3%) of the patients in Group B were treated with one cycle of adyuvant carboplatin. Three patients suffered a relapse with retroperitoneal lymph nodes (10.3%), all of them were treated with three cycles of BEP, with a complete response of the disease. No statistical significant differences were found in PFS between Group A and B (log Rank P=.317).
Individualization of adjuvant treatment in stage I seminoma is important, avoiding the adverse effects derived from them.

Testicular germ cell tumours are the most common malignancies in young men. Germ cell tumours can be classified as seminomas or non-seminomas, each with different clinical features and treatment approaches. Germ cell tumours are occasionally associated with somatic-type malignancy, particularly in metastatic lymph nodes after adjuvant chemotherapy. Adenocarcinomas and rhabdomyosarcoma are the most common malignancies in this setting. In this report, we present a unique case of a 37-year-old patient who presented with a testicular teratoma containing a nephroblastoma component. The tumour exhibited characteristic morphology that resembled foetal kidney and expressed nuclear WT-1 and PAX-8 on immunohistochemistry. Following surgery, the patient opted for active surveillance and remains disease-free. To date, only 7 cases of nephroblastoma in primary testicular teratoma have been reported. This case highlights the importance of considering this rare entity in the differential diagnosis of testicular teratomas and the need for careful pathological examination.

OBJECTIVE: Testicular germ cell tumours (GCTs) represent the most common malignancy in young adult males with two thirds of all cases presenting with clinical stage I (CSI). Active surveillance is the management modality mostly favoured by current guidelines. This systematic review assesses the treatment results in CSI patients concerning recurrence rate and overall survival in non-seminoma (NS) and pure seminoma (SE) resulting from surveillance in comparison to adjuvant strategies.
UNASSIGNED: We performed a systematic literature review confining the search to most recent studies published 2010-2021 that reported direct comparisons of surveillance to adjuvant management. We searched Medline and the Cochrane Library with additional hand-searching of reference lists to identify relevant studies. Data extraction and quality assessment of included studies were performed with stratification for histology (NS vs. SE) and treatment modalities. The results were tabulated and evaluated with descriptive statistical methods.
RESULTS: Thirty-four studies met the inclusion criteria. In NS patients relapse rates were 12 to 37%, 0 to 10%, and 0 to 11.8% for surveillance, chemotherapy and for retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND) while overall survival rates were 90.7-100%, 91.7-100%, and 97-99.1%, respectively. In SE CSI, relapse rates were 0-22.3%, 0-5%, and 0-12.5% for surveillance, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, while overall survival rates were 84.1-98.7%, 83.5-100%, and 92.3-100%, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: In both histologic subgroups, active surveillance offers almost identical overall survival as adjuvant management strategies, however, at the expense of higher relapse rates. Each of the management strategies in CSI GCT patients have specific merits and shared-decision-making is advised to tailor treatment.

UNASSIGNED: The aim of this review is to describe the proportion of testicular germ cell tumours (tGCTs) with recurrence, and the timing and anatomical sites of relapse across different disease stages and after different treatment options. We summarise published follow-up protocols and discuss current and future developments to personalise follow-up for patients with tGCT.
UNASSIGNED: A systematic literature search was conducted and current guidelines and selected institutional follow-up protocols were reviewed.
UNASSIGNED: Of 302 publications, we screened 68 full texts and included 29 studies; 22 of these were retrospective and seven were prospective in nature, contributing data for 20 570 patients. The number of patients included per study ranged from 119 to 2483. We compared the guideline follow-up protocols of the European Society for Medical Oncology, European Association of Urology, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and American Urological Association, as well as institutional follow-up protocols. The protocols differed in terms of the number, time points, and type of follow-up investigations.
UNASSIGNED: Future research should assess how tGCT can be followed to ensure high adherence, define the role of miR-371a-3p microRNA during follow-up, and develop follow-up protocols after curative treatment in the metastatic setting.
UNASSIGNED: In this review of follow-up protocols for men with testis cancer, we observed different recommendations and discuss future research areas to improve follow-up for these patients.

OBJECTIVE: This systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to explore overall survival (OS) and event free survival (EFS) rates internationally over the past two decades and to define specific subgroups with inferior outcomes which may demand different treatment strategies.
METHODS: The search focused on malignant extracranial germ cell tumours (GCTs) in the paediatric population. The initial database search identified 12,556 articles; 32 articles were finally included in this review, comprising a total of 5095 patients.
RESULTS: The studies were heterogeneous, varying from single institution reports to large prospective trials. Older studies, describing eras where non-platinum-based chemotherapy regimens were used, showed clearly worse outcomes. Survival for stage I-II gonadal disease is excellent. On the other hand, patients with an initial alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) > 10,000 ng/mL or kU/L, age > 11 years and stage IV disease confer a survival disadvantage. For testicular disease in particular, lymphovascular invasion and certain histopathological subtypes, such as embryonal carcinoma (EC) and mixed malignant GCTs, survival is poorer. Survival data for sacrococcygeal and mediastinal GCTs show a heterogeneous distribution across studies in this review, independent of year of publication. Patients > 12 years presenting with a mediastinal GCT pose a subpopulation which fares worse than GCTs in other locations or age groups. This is independent of AFP levels, stage of disease or treatment protocol, and these patients may demand a different treatment strategy.
CONCLUSIONS: This review describes the heterogeneous nature of GCTs in different anatomical locations, impacting on stage at presentation, treatment modalities used and survival data. Despite this heterogeneity, in line with the current developmental biology-based classification system, subpopulations can be defined which have an inferior EFS and OS and where future research and more individualised treatment would help to improve survival.

OBJECTIVE: Sacrococcygeal teratoma (SCT) is a rare extragonadal germ cell tumour mostly diagnosed during infancy and early childhood. Neonatal SCTs are mostly mature, but can also contain immature and/or malignant components. Recurrence of an SCT alters prognosis, especially when it is malignant, of which its mechanism is not yet fully understood. This study is a review and meta-analysis of the literature on malignant recurrences after an initially mature SCT.
METHODS: A literature search was performed to identify studies describing children with SCT and presenting specific information on histology of the initial tumour as well as the recurrence. Random effect models for mature recurrence and malignant recurrence after an initially mature SCT were employed to pool study-specific percentages in order to estimate an overall percentage and its associated 95 % confidence intervals (CI). Inverse variance method, which gives more weight to larger studies, was used to pool outcomes for the different studies.
RESULTS: A total of 22 articles, comprising 1516 patients with SCT, were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled proportions of mature and malignant recurrences after mature SCT were 3 % (95 % CI 1-4 %) and 5% (95 % CI 3-6 %), respectively. Fifty-seven (56 %) of a total of 102 recurrences after resection of an initially mature SCT were malignant, mostly yolk sac tumour (YST). Many recurrences occurred within 1-6 years, however some occurred as long as 20 years after initial diagnosis.
CONCLUSIONS: A substantial number of recurrences of mature SCT present as a malignant tumour. Overlooking malignant components on initial pathological evaluation and the progression of mature SCT cells to malignant cells may play a role. Treatment of mature SCTs with resection alone requires thorough follow-up of at least 6 years. Future research is needed to determine whether SCTs with malignant microfoci should be treated or followed-up differently from mature or immature SCTs. In addition, the value of serum biomarkers in follow-up after SCT needs to be further evaluated.