Very late relapse of germ cell tumor as a teratoma: a case report and review of the literature

Waddah Arafat; Costantine Albany; Thomas M Ulbright; Richard Foster; Lawrence H Einhorn

doi:10.1093/jscr/rju051

Very late relapse of germ cell tumor as a teratoma: a case report and review of the literature

J Surg Case Rep. 2014 Jun 2;2014(6):rju051. doi: 10.1093/jscr/rju051.

Authors

Waddah Arafat¹, Costantine Albany², Thomas M Ulbright³, Richard Foster⁴, Lawrence H Einhorn²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA [email protected].
² Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
³ Department of Pathology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
⁴ Department of Urology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.

Abstract

Very late relapses of germ cell tumors (GCTs) are rare. There are few reports of relapses occurring beyond 20 years of initial treatment. Here we describe a case of a very late relapse of Stage I testicular non-seminomatous germ cell tumor 27 years after orchiectomy. The relapse presented as a retroperitoneal mass in the precaval lymph nodes with negative tumor markers. It was resected and pathology confirmed it as metastatic teratoma. This case emphasizes the importance of lifelong surveillance for patients with GCTs.

Publication types

Case Reports