Mediastinal seminoma in a pediatric patient managed with multi-modality treatment approach: A case report

Mediastinal seminomas arise due to abnormal migration of the totipotent stem cells during development. They occur very occasionally and makes up about 0.5-5 % of all mediastinal tumors. These usually occur in middle aged men, between 20 and 40 years. In pediatric age group, it is considered as an extremely rare finding, accounting for 3 %-7 % of all primary germ cell tumors.

We report a rare case of a 16-year-old boy with biopsy proven seminomatous type of germ cell tumor in anterior mediastinum who presented with productive cough and progressive dyspnea. The occurrence of mediastinal seminoma especially in pediatric population is a very infrequent finding, hence, very little literature is found in this regard as per our knowledge.

The incidence of primary mediastinal germ cell tumors is approximately around 3 %-6 % of all the germ cell tumors in pediatric population. Diagnosis of mediastinal seminomas need a multipronged approach and treatment is associated with multidisciplinary procedures including chemotherapy combined with subsequent surgical resection for long term survival benefits.

From the above presented case, it can be safely concluded that multimodality treatment approach of chemotherapy combined with surgical resection could ensure long-term survival benefits in extra-gonadal mediastinal seminomas.