Long-term treatment in infantile choriocarcinoma

Abstract

The long-term treatment of a 5 month old boy with precocious puberty secondary to the production of chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) by a choriocarcinoma is described. Of 13 cases of infantile choriocarcinoma reported in the literature, none were successfully treated. The present study describes a partially successful outcome with embolization of a hepatic tumor, irradiation of lung and right submandibular tumors, chemotherapy with methotrexate (MTX), actinomycin D (ACD), cyclophosphamide (CPA) and etoposide (VP16), and splenectomy and hepatic lobectomy. Subsequently, the residual hepatic tumors were treated with high dose melphalan (HDM) followed by reinfusion of unpurged autologous marrow.