Treatment of malignant germ cell tumors of the ovary

Thirty-five patients with ovarian germ cell malignancies presenting from 1982 to 1992 were studied. The pathologic diagnoses were immature teratoma in 11 patients, endodermal sinus tumor in eight, dysgerminoma in 12, and mixed germ cell tumor in four. The median age at presentation was 20 years. Postoperative multiple-agent chemotherapy was given to 28 patients. Five out of 35 (14%) patients died of malignancy, three with endodermal sinus tumors with stage Ia, Ic, and IIIc, respectively, one with stage IIIc dysgerminoma, and one with stage IIIc mixed germ cell tumor. The other 30 patients were alive without evidence of disease from 14 to 124 months, with a median follow-up of 52 months. All eleven patients with immature teratoma were alive with no evidence of disease at 20 to 104 months of follow-up. Four patients with stage I, grade 1 immature teratoma were successfully treated with surgery alone. The other seven patients were treated with adjuvant chemotherapy and were disease-free. One patient with stage IIIc dysgerminoma was treated with surgery and radiotherapy but died of disease. The other eleven patients were safely treated with surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy with vincristine, actinomycin-D and cyclophosphamide (VAC) or platinum-based chemotherapy. For the more virulent tumors such as endodermal sinus tumor and mixed germ cell tumor, platinum-based chemotherapy should be used exclusively in view of the high failure rate of the VAC regimen. Preservation of fertility for young patients with malignant ovarian germ cell tumors is possible in the early stages of disease and in selected cases of advanced disease.