Therapeutic Courses of Presumed Intracranial Immature Teratoma Diagnosed Based on Increased Alpha-Fetoprotein

Intracranial immature teratoma (ImT) is one of the non-germinomatous germ cell tumors, and elevated serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) value is a crucial clinical diagnostic indicator of ImT. In this retrospective study conducted among patients diagnosed with intracranial ImT, diagnostic procedures, therapeutic courses, histopathologic diagnosis, and prognosis were reviewed. Among 106 patients with intracranial germ cell tumors, 11 were diagnosed with ImT and treated since 2000. ImT was diagnosed via biopsy or based on mild or moderate serum AFP elevation of 10-500 ng/mL. Complete remission via chemoradiotherapy was achieved in only 2 patients (18%); 5 patients (45%) suffered from growing disease during treatment; and 7 patients required salvage tumor resection. The 10-year progression-free and overall survival rates were 76.2% and 87.5%, respectively. The therapeutic courses of ImT varied. Notably, cases in which treatment was applied considering ImT were highly prone to experience growing disease during treatment.