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Malignant Ovarian Germ Cell Tumours: An Overview of Management and Controversies

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Ovarian Cancers

Abstract

Non-epithelial malignancies of the ovary account for around 10 % of all ovarian malignancies, but display a striking disparity in epidemiology and outcomes. Over the previous decades, epidemiological trends have suggested that malignant ovarian germ cell tumours (MOGCTs) are presenting earlier and that overall survival in this category as a whole is excellent, even in the setting of advanced disease. Indeed since the advent of cisplatin-based multimodality treatment, this is a tumour type which one can argue has been understudied in comparison to the other more prevalent gynaecological malignancies.

As such many questions remain unanswered. MOGCT is a disease that is poorly understood at the molecular level despite the serendipitous finding of high response rates to cytotoxic chemotherapy. Much of our evidence base stems from small single-centre retrospective case series, and as such true randomised prospective trial data is lacking in this field. Subsequently questions such as the optimal treatment of relapsed disease are currently not well defined. This overview will present the state of our knowledge to date on the management of MOGCT and seek to outline areas of controversy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Oncology, Charing Cross Hospital Campus of Imperial College London, London, W68RF, UK

    Constantine Alifrangis PhD, MRCP & Michael J. Seck PhD, FRCP

Authors
  1. Constantine Alifrangis PhD, MRCP
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  2. Michael J. Seck PhD, FRCP
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Correspondence to Michael J. Seck PhD, FRCP .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. AP-HP, Hôtel-Dieu, Paris, France

    Eric Pujade-Lauraine

  2. Centre Léon Bérard, Université Claude Bernard, Lyon, France

    Isabelle Ray-Coquard

  3. Chirurgie cancérologique, HEGP, Paris, France

    Fabrice Lécuru

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Alifrangis, C., Seck, M.J. (2017). Malignant Ovarian Germ Cell Tumours: An Overview of Management and Controversies. In: Pujade-Lauraine, E., Ray-Coquard, I., Lécuru, F. (eds) Ovarian Cancers. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32110-3_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32110-3_18

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-32108-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-32110-3

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