Summary
In 29 patients with metastasising testicular tumours serial determination of HCG was performed for monitoring cytostatic chemotherapy. Clinical remissions and stable disease were accompanied by normalisation of elevated HCG values in 85% and 80% of all cases, respectively. Despite the normalisation of HCG levels,no complete disappearance of clinically detectable tumour lesions could be seen in the herein presented cases. Seventeen percent of the patients showed normal HCG levels, although they had progressive disease. Recurrent disease was associated with preceding increase of HCG in only 33% of the cases. Because of the frequency of mixed tumour tissues in teratomas, additional methods for monitoring therapy should be used.
Zusammenfassung
Bei 29 Patienten mit metastasierenden Hodentumoren wurde regelmäßig eine Bestimmung des HCG-Spiegels während einer Cytostaticatherapie durchgeführt. Patienten mit Remissionen zeigten in 85%, solche mit Krankheitsstillstand in 80% der Fälle eine Normalisierung des HCG-Spiegels. Trotz der nachweisbaren Normalisierung der HCG-Werte konnte in keinem der hier beschriebenen Fälle ein vollständiger Rückgang der Metastasen verzeichnet werden.
17% der Patienten mit progredienter Metastasierung zeigten normale HCG-Werte. Erneute Krankheitsprogression nach vorausgegangener Remission war nur in 33% der Fälle von einem vor dem klinischen Nachweis erkennbaren HCG-Anstieg begleitet.
Wegen der Häufigkeit von Mischtumoren bei malignen Teratomen des Hodens müssen weitere Methoden zur Beurteilung eines Therapieerfolges herangezogen werden.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bahl,O.P., Carlsen,R.B., Bellisario,R., Swaminathan,N.: Human chorionic gonadotropin: amino acid sequence of the α and β subunits. Biochem. biophys. Res. Commun. 48, 416 (1972)
Braunstein,G.D., Vaitukaitis,J.L., Carbone,P.P., Ross,G.T.: Ectopic production of human chorionic gonadotropin by neoplasms. Ann. intern. Med. 78, 39 (1973a)
Braunstein,G.D., McIntire,K.R., Waldmann,T.A.: Discordance of human chorionic gonadotropin and alpha-fetoprotein in testicular teratocarcinomas. Cancer (Philad.) 31, 1065 (1973b)
Carlsen,R.B., Bahl,O.P., Swaminathan,N.: Human chorionic gonadotropin. Linear amino acid sequence of the β subunit. J. biol. Chem. 248, 6810 (1973)
Goldstein,D.P., Kosasa,T.S., Skarim,A.T.: The clinical application of aspecific radioimmunoassay for human chorionic gonadotropin in trophoblastic and nontrophoblastic tumors. Surg. Gynec. Obstet. 138, 747 (1974)
Höffken,K., Tingelhoff,J., Hornung,G., Schmidt,C.G.: Zur cytostatischen Therapie der Hodentumoren. Z. Krebsforsch. 82, 307 (1974)
Höffken,K., Tingelhoff,J., Seeber,S., Schmidt, C.G.: Actinomycin-D-Monotherapie bei malignen Hodentumoren. Urologe, Ausg. A, 15, 61 (1976)
Kohler,P.O., Bridson,W.E., Vanha-Perttula,T., Hammond,J.M.: Isolation of hormone-producing clonal strains of human choriocarcinoma. In: Program of the 51st Meeting of the Endocrine Society, p. 52, Abstr. 44 (1969)
Lamerz,R., Fateh-Moghadam,A.: Carcinofetale Antigene. I. Alpha-Fetoprotein. Klin. Wschr. 53, 147 (1975)
Midgley,A.R., Jr.: Radioimmunoassay: a method for human chorionic gonadotropin and human luteinizing hormone. Endocrinology 79, 10 (1966)
Pattillo,R.A., Gey,G.O., Delfs,E., Mattingly,R.F.: Gonadotropin hormone specificity of the new trophoblast cell line. In: Program of the 51st Meeting of the Endocrine Society, p. 52, Abstr. 43 (1969)
Pierce,J.G., Bahl,O.P., Cornell,J.S., Swaminathan,N.: Biologically active hormones prepared by recombination of the α chain of human chorionic gonadotropin and the hormone-specific chain of bovine thyrotropin or of bovine luteinizing hormone. Biochemistry 246, 2321 (1971)
Swaminathan,N., Bahl,O.P.: Dissociation and recombination of the subunits of human chorionic gonadotropin. Biochem. biophys. Res. Commun. 40, 422 (1970)
Thomas,K., Ferin,J.: A new rapid radioimmunoassay for HCG (LH, ICSH) in plasma using dioxan. J. clin. Endocr. 28, 1667 (1968)
Vaitukaitis,J.L., Braunstein,G.D., Ross,G.T.: A radioimmunoassay which specifically measures human chorionic gonadotropin in the presence of human luteinizing hormone. Amer. J. Obstet. Gynec. 113, 751 (1972)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Supported by Landesamt für Forschung, Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Höffken, K., Schmidt, C.G. Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) in monitoring the course of testicular tumours. Z. Krebsforsch. 87, 37–40 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00285071
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00285071