INTRODUCTION:
Germ Cell Tumors (GCT) are a rare, heterogeneous group of benign and
malignant tumours, occurring in gonadal and midline extragonadal sites.
These tumors account for an overall 3% of paediatric
cancers1. GCTs show a
bimodal distribution, with one peak in infancy and the other in
adolescence2,3.
With the advent of platinum-based chemotherapy in the 1980s, survival
has improved
dramatically4; with
survival in stage I GCT approaching
100%5.A recent hospital
based cancer registry (HBCR)reported an incidence of 1.6-3.6%/0.8-4.5%
in boys/girls amongst all childhood
cancers6. A
cross-sectional study from the authors’ centre reports the incidence of
GCTs to be 4.2% across all paediatric
cancers7,8.
The purpose of this single-centre study was to analyse the
clinico-pathological outcomes and prognostic variables amongst
extracranial GCTs in children and adolescents treated on a
multi-disciplinary approach on standard chemotherapy regimens across a
decade at a tertiary referral centre in India.