[Clinical outcome of adult testicular tumor. II. Study on patients with positive human chorionic gonadotropin].

The outcome of clinical therapy of testis tumor presenting with positive human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in our hospital is reported. Of 110 patients with adult germ cell testis tumor, 19 (17.3%) had elevated hCG levels in serum or urine. Two (3.1%) of the 65 patients with seminoma and 17 (37.8%) of the 45 non-seminoma patients had positive hCG. Chorionic elements were confirmed at primary and/or metastatic sites in 10 (52.6%) of these patients, and in not a few cases different histologic features were seen at the two sites. Many patients with chorionic elements had high hCG levels (more than 3,000 mIU/ml) in serum, while patients in whom no chorionic elements were detected had low hCG levels (below 1,000 mIU/ml). The hCG-positive group seemed to have a poor prognosis because they were mostly in an advanced stage at their first visit to the hospital, and no difference in prognosis was found between the patients with chorionic elements and those without. The advanced group had a poor prognosis irrespective of their hCG levels.