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Case Reports: Rare disease
Recurrence of primitive germ cell tumour 20 years on
  1. Helen-Cara Younan1,
  2. Georgina Keogh2,
  3. Michael Seckl2,3 and
  4. Naveed Sarwar2,3
  1. 1Department of Clinical Oncology, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK
  2. 2Department of Medical Oncology, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK
  3. 3Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Helen-Cara Younan; helen-cara.younan{at}nhs.net

Abstract

We present a case of a woman in her 20s, with a prior history of paediatric sacrococcygeal germ cell tumour, presenting with a 6-month history of perianal pain. An MRI pelvis revealed a heterogeneous soft tissue mass causing destruction of the sacrococcygeal bone. A staging CT demonstrated metastatic deposits in the lungs and hypodense foci in the liver suspicious of metastatic disease. Her alpha-fetoprotein levels were raised and a CT-guided biopsy was in keeping with recurrent germ cell tumour. She was referred to a national centre for the treatment of germ cell tumours in adults and was rechallenged with cisplatin-based multiagent chemotherapy with a curative intent. This case raises the important question of how long we should follow-up these patients and whether they can ever be safely discharged from oncology surveillance.

  • Oncology
  • Cancer intervention

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2021-248093

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors H-CY and GK performed a background literature search and prepared the initial draft of the manuscript. MS contributed critical revisions of the manuscript. NS identified the case for reporting and contributed critical revisions of the manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Case reports provide a valuable learning resource for the scientific community and can indicate areas of interest for future research. They should not be used in isolation to guide treatment choices or public health policy.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.