Surveillance for patients with clinical stage I nonseminomatous testicular germ cell tumors.

PURPOSE

To assess the prognostic value of histological parameters in patients with clinical stage I nonseminomatous germ cell tumors (NSGCTs) undergoing active surveillance post-orchiectomy.

METHODS

Prognoses and recurrence patterns were investigated in 78 patients with CSI NSGCT who underwent orchiectomy. Immediately following orchiectomy, patients participated in active surveillance between 1999 and 2013 at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China.

RESULTS

23.1 % of the 78 investigated patients with CSI NSGCT relapsed, within a median time of 5.6 months It was determined using multivariate analysis that lymph vascular invasion (LVI) (OR 6.521; 95 % CI 1.872-22.721; p = 0.003) and the predominant presence of yolk sac tumor (greater than 50 %) (OR 3.537; 95 % CI 1.076-11.628; p = 0.038) independently correlated with relapse-free survival (RFS). Patients were categorized accordingly into three risk groups: low risk [<50 % presence of yolk sac tumor and LVI (-); n = 41], intermediate risk [50 % or greater presence of yolk sac tumor and LVI (+); n = 29], and high risk [50 % or greater presence of yolk sac tumor and LVI (+); n = 8]. Relapse rates of the low-risk, intermediate-risk, and high-risk groups were 7.3, 31.0, and 75.0 %, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

LVI and a predominant presence of yolk sac tumor are crucial risk factors for relapse of CSI NSGCT. For patients without either of these risk factors, active surveillance post-orchiectomy is a safe and effective approach for the initial management of CSI NSGCT.