Purpose: To describe the clinical characteristics and estimate the survival of children and adolescents with germ cell tumors treated with cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy according to three different protocols in Brazil.
Methods: From 1983 to 1997, 106 patients were treated at the Hospital do Cancer, Sao Paulo for a diagnosis of germ cell tumor. We performed a retrospective review of the clinical and histopathological data to identify prognostic factors and evaluate their outcome.
Results: Patients were treated with only surgery (n = 32), surgery and radiotherapy (n = 1) and chemotherapy (n = 73). From 1983 to 1986 (period I), there were 30 patients and 21 received chemotherapy according to the modified VAB-6 protocol. Twenty-two of 35 patients registered between 1987 and 1991 (period II) were treated with EPO/VAC combination chemotherapy. From 1991 to 1997 (period III), there were 41 patients and 31 received chemotherapy according to the Brazilian TCG-91 protocol. Important prognostic factors included stage (P < 0.001), metastatic status (P < 0.001) and surgical procedure at diagnosis (P < 0.001). An incremental improvement in outcomes was noted across the periods of treatment (P = 0.070). Five-year OS was respectively 42.9 +/- 10.8%, 53.9 +/- 11.4% and 80.6 +/- 7.1% for periods I, II, and III for the patients who received chemotherapy.
Conclusion: An improvement in the survival of children with germ cell tumors was achieved in the most recent trial (TCG-91) with a risk adapted approach incorporating only cisplatin and etoposide. These results indicate that in selected patients complex three-agent regimens may not be necessary to achieve long term survival.
(c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.