Objective: To investigate the clinical characterstics, effective treatment and prognosis in patients with primary germ cell tumors in the mediastinum.
Methods: The data of 47 such patients treated from 1967 to 2005 were retrospectively reviewed.
Results: Of these 47 patients, 41 were male and 6 female with a median age of 26 years; 8 (17.0%) had seminoma, and 39 (83.0%) non-seminoma. The overall 1-, 3-, 5-year survival rate was 63.4%, 37.5% and 34.8% with a median survival time of 16 months; which was 100%, 83.3% and 83.3% for seminoma and 56.4%, 30% and 27.3% for nonseminoma, respectively. The pathologic type was found to be the only independent prognostic factor (P = 0.045).
Conclusion: Primary mediastinal serminoma is sensitive to radiotherapy or chemotherapy with a good prognosis, but the prognosis of primary mediastinal non-seminoma is poor. Cisplatin-based chemotherapy still plays a key role in the treatment of primary mediastinal non-seminoma as the survival of those has been improved.