Dowling CM, et al. - The intention of the researchers was to investigate the pathologic findings and clinical outcome of patients with pure embryonal carcinoma (EC) of the testis who underwent an orchiectomy, cisplatin-based chemotherapy and a post-chemotherapy retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (PC-RPLND). It was deduced that around 20% of patients with pure EC presented with teratoma at PC-RPLND. Data recommended against the preclusion of individuals with a maximum node size of <1cm from RPLND.

Methods

• During this study, candidates with 100% EC were contrasted against subjects with mixed non-seminomatous germ cell tumor (NSGCT) pathology who underwent a PC-RPLND.

Results

• A total of 145 patients had pure EC, among 1,105 patients who underwent a PC-RPLND.
• Metastatic disease outside the retroperitoneum was reported in 26% of patients.
• The tendency for worse International Germ Cell Cancer Collaborative Group risk was discovered among enrollees with mixed histologies compared to those with EC at orchiectomy (p=0.037).
• Histology at PC-RPLND illustrated fibrosis or necrosis in 76%, mature teratoma in 19% and viable cancer in 4% cases.
• Data disclosed the presence of a residual mass of <1cm prior to RPLND in over one-third of the patients; out of whom 15% harbored mature teratoma in PC-RPLND histology.
• The probability of recurrence at 5 years of follow-up was estimated to be 3.1% (95% CI 1.2%, 8.0%) for EC histology, 7.3% lower than mixed histology via the Kaplan Meier.
• It was noted that the Kaplan Meier estimated probability at 5 years to be 4.6% (95% CI 3.3%, 6.3%) and 1.7% (95% CI 0.4%, 6.8%) for mixed and pure EC histologies, respectively for cancer-specific mortality.