Resection of Primary Mediastinal Non-Seminomatous Germ Cell Tumors: A 28-Year Experience at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Introduction

Surgical resection of residual tumor mass in responders to platinum-based chemotherapy has evolved as the preferred treatment of primary mediastinal nonseminomatous germ cell tumors (PMNGCTs). We reviewed a single institution's operative experience with these rare tumors.

Methods

We reviewed charts of patients resected for PMNGCT at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center between July 1980 and April 2008. Analyses included Kaplan-Meier survival with univariate log-rank comparisons and Cox multivariate regression.

Results

Fifty-seven patients were identified and followed up for a median of 5.3 years. Fifty-four of them received platinum-based preoperative chemotherapy, and 28 (49%) had limited stage I/II disease. Preoperative tumor markers normalized or decreased in 79% of patients. The most common surgical approach was anterolateral thoracotomy with partial sternotomy (“hemiclamshell,” 38.6%). An R0 resection was achieved in 91% of the patients with a major morbidity of 17.5% and no postoperative deaths. The median overall survival was 31.5 months. Factors correlating with better survival on univariate analyses were necrosis or teratoma versus residual cancer on final pathology (p = 0.001), R0 resection (p = 0.03), normalized or decreased postchemotherapy/preoperative tumor markers (p < 0.001), normalized postoperative tumor markers (p = 0.004), stage I/II disease (p = 0.03), and surgery after 2000 versus 1980–1999 (p = 0.01). An exploratory multivariate analysis suggests that normalized or decreased postchemotherapy/preoperative tumor markers is the strongest independent predictor of improved survival.

Conclusions

In a cohort of PMNGCT patients in which 91% of the patients underwent complete posttherapy resection, response to chemotherapy, measured by normalized or decreased preoperative tumor markers, was the strongest predictor of improved survival.