Germ Cell Tumors

Abstract

Germ cell tumors are a varied group of benign and malignant neoplasms derived from primordial germ cells [1–10, 12–15] (Table 2.1 and Fig. 2.1). They occur in a variety of sites, both gonadal and extragonadal, the latter in midline locations as the sacrococcygeal, retroperitoneal, mediastinal, cervical, and pineal regions (Tables 2.2 and 2.3). Teratoma is the leading fetal and neonatal neoplasm in several reviews [9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17] (Table 1.1). Most germ cell tumors of the fetus and infant are histologically benign and are diagnosed as either mature or immature teratomas (Table 2.2). Yolk sac tumor, second in frequency, occurs alone or in combination with a teratoma. Although yolk sac tumor of the cervix or vagina is the subject of a few case reports, yolk sac tumor of the infant testis is more prevalent and is the most common germ cell tumor arising from this organ [2, 4, 8, 20]. To my knowledge, neither yolk sac tumor nor teratoma of the ovary has been reported during the first year of life [7, 14].