Clinicopathologic Characterization of Bilateral Testicular Germ Cell Tumors With Immunohistochemical Evaluation of Mismatch Repair and BRAF (V600E) Genes Mutations

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 619-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khaleel I. Al-Obaidy ◽  
Karen E. Trevino ◽  
Muhammad T. Idrees

The incidence of bilateral testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) is 1% to 5%. Despite the high rate of treatment success, resistance to chemotherapy has a detrimental effect. Some studies found MMR and BRAF gene mutations to be associated with chemotherapy resistance, which has not been found by others. However, the role of microsatellite instability (MSI) and BRAF mutations in bilateral disease has not been investigated. In this article, we studied the clinicopathologic characteristics and immunohistochemical expressions of MMR and BRAF in 13 patients with bilateral TGCT. Bilateral tumors were found in 4% of patients in our data. The mean ages at the first and subsequent diagnoses were 26.9 and 28.3 years, respectively. Eleven patients had metachronous disease; and the mean period between both tumors was 4.9 years. Six had mixed GCTs (MGCT) initially and later developed contralateral seminoma, 3 had bilateral MGCTs; 1 initially had pure embryonal carcinoma and subsequently MGCT and finally, 1 patient had initial seminoma and contralateral germ cell neoplasia in situ only. Of the patients with synchronous GCT, 1 had a MGCT and contralateral non-seminoma and 1 had seminoma and contralateral MGCT. In metachronous cases, 40% and 78% had an initial and subsequent stage of pT1, respectively. Hormonal and/or metastatic recurrence was observed in 30% of metachronous tumors. Six patients received chemotherapy, including patients with metastasis. No progression occurred after therapy. MLH1, PMS2, MSH2, and MSH6 staining was retained in all tumors. No BRAF staining was found. In conclusion, we found no association between bilateral TGCT and the MMR/MSI pathway and that subsequent metachronous tumors behaved much more indolently.

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 787
Author(s):  
Cinzia Caggiano ◽  
Francesca Cavallo ◽  
Teresa Giannattasio ◽  
Gioia Cappelletti ◽  
Pellegrino Rossi ◽  
...  

Despite germ cell tumors (GCTs) responding to cisplatin-based chemotherapy at a high rate, a subset of patients does not respond to treatment and have significantly worse prognosis. The biological mechanisms underlying the resistance remain unknown. In this study, by using two TGCT cell lines that have acquired cisplatin resistance after chronic exposure to the drug, we identified some key proteins and mechanisms of acquired resistance. We show that cisplatin-resistant cell lines had a non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ)-less phenotype. This correlated with a reduced basal expression of TP53-binding protein 1 (53BP1) and DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PKcs) proteins and reduced formation of 53BP1 foci after cisplatin treatment. Consistent with these observations, modulation of 53BP1 protein expression altered the cell line’s resistance to cisplatin, and inhibition of DNA-PKcs activity antagonized cisplatin cytotoxicity. Dampening of NHEJ was accompanied by a functional increase in the repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) by the homologous recombination repair pathway. As a result, cisplatin-resistant cells were more resistant to PARP inhibitor (PARPi) monotherapy. Moreover, when PARPi was given in combination with cisplatin, it exerted an additive/synergistic effect, and reduced the cisplatin dose for cytotoxicity. These results suggest that treatment of cisplatin-refractory patients may benefit from low-dose cisplatin therapy combined with PARPi.


2001 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 536-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Finn Edler von Eyben ◽  
Ebbe Lindegaard Madsen ◽  
Ole Blaabjerg ◽  
Per Hyltoft Petersen ◽  
Hans von der Maase ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 575-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Chieffi

Background: Testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) is the most common solid malignancy occurring in young men between 20 and 34 years of age, and its incidence has increased significantly over the last decades. TGCTs can be subdivided into seminoma and nonseminoma germ cell tumors (NSGCTs), which includes yolk sac tumor, choriocarcinoma, embryonal cell carcinoma, and teratoma. Seminomas and NSGCTs present significant differences in therapy, prognosis, and both show characteristics of the Primordial Germ Cells (PGCs). Methods: I undertook a search of bibliographic data from peer-reviewed research literature. Results: Seventy papers were included in the mini-review showing that a large number of new biomarkers have given further advantages to discriminate the different histotypes and could represent useful novel molecular targets for anticancer strategies. Conclusion: A deeper understanding of the pathogenesis of TGCTs is likely to significantly improve not only our knowledge on stem cells and oncogenesis but also the disease management with more selective tumor treatment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 967-978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarina Kalavska ◽  
Vincenza Conteduca ◽  
Ugo De Giorgi ◽  
Michal Mego

Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) represent the most common malignancy in men aged 15-35. Due to these tumors’ biological and clinical characteristics, they can serve as an appropriate system for studying molecular mechanisms associated with cisplatin-based treatment resistance. This review describes treatment resistance from clinical and molecular viewpoints. Cisplatin resistance is determined by various biological mechanisms, including the modulation of the DNA repair capacity of cancer cells, alterations to apoptotic cell death pathways, deregulation of gene expression pathways, epigenetic alterations and insufficient DNA binding. Moreover, this review describes TGCTs as a model system that enables the study of the cellular features of cancer stem cells in metastatic process and describes experimental models that can be used to study treatment resistance in TGCTs. All of the abovementioned aspects may help to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying cisplatin resistance and may help to identify promising new therapeutic targets.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 107602962110247
Author(s):  
Hikmat Abdel-Razeq ◽  
Faris Tamimi ◽  
Rashid Abdel-Razeq ◽  
Samer Salah ◽  
Zaid Omari ◽  
...  

Malignancy, including testicular tumors, significantly increases the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). In this study, we search for predictors that may help identify subgroups of patients at higher risk of VTE. Patients with confirmed diagnosis of testicular germ cell tumor and proven VTE were identified. Clinical and pathological features possibly associated with VTE were reviewed. A total of 322 patients, median age (range) 31 (18-76) years were identified. Tumors were mostly non-seminoma (n = 194, 60.2%), node-positive (n = 130, 40.4%) and 58 (18.0%) had metastatic disease at diagnosis. Venous thromboembolism were confirmed in 27 (8.4%) patients; however, rates were significantly higher ( P < 0.001) in patients with node-positive (18.5%), metastatic disease (22.4%), and those with high lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (21.3%). Rates were also significantly higher among those who received multiple lines of chemotherapy (27.5%) compared to those who received one line (13.8%) or none (<1.0%), P < 0.001. Patients with testicular tumors and high tumor burden, including nodal involvement, high LDH or metastatic disease, and those treated with multiple lines of chemotherapy have significantly higher rates of VTE.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Pia Paffenholz ◽  
Tim Nestler ◽  
Yasmine Maatoug ◽  
Melanie von Brandenstein ◽  
Barbara Köditz ◽  
...  

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> The impact of teratomatous elements in orchiectomy specimens of metastasized testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) regarding oncological outcome is still unclear. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We performed a retrospective analysis including 146 patients with metastasized TGCT analysing patient characteristics. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Twenty-six (18%) of all patients showed teratomatous elements in the orchiectomy specimens. TGCT with teratomatous elements showed a significantly higher frequency of clinical-stage 2C-3 disease (73 vs. 49%, <i>p</i> = 0.031), visceral metastases (58 vs. 32%, <i>p</i> = 0.015), and poor prognosis (<i>p</i> = 0.011) than TGCT without teratomatous elements. Teratoma-containing TGCT revealed a significantly higher rate of post-chemotherapy retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (PC-RPLND, 54 vs. 32%, <i>p</i> = 0.041), with teratomatous elements being more often present in the PC-RPLND specimens (43 vs. 11%, <i>p</i> = 0.020) than nonteratoma-containing primaries. In the Kaplan-Meier estimates, the presence of teratomatous elements in orchiectomy specimens was associated with a significantly reduced relapse-free survival (RFS) (<i>p</i> = 0.049) during a median follow-up of 36 months (10–115.5). <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> The presence of teratomatous elements in orchiectomy specimens is associated with an advanced tumor stage, worse treatment response as well as a reduced RFS in metastasized TGCT. Consequently, the presence of teratomatous elements might act as a reliable stratification tool for treatment decision in TGCT patients.


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