Salvage therapy for refractory or recurrent pediatric germ cell tumors: The french SFCE experience

Abstract

Purpose: Some children with extracranial germ cell tumors (GCT) relapse after or do not respond to first-line treatment combining chemotherapy and surgery, of whom very few experience long-term survival despite multimodal salvage treatment. Methods: This prospective study, part of the French TGM95 Protocol for non-seminomatous GCT (NSGCT), included 19 (7%) children with malignant refractory or recurrent extracranial NSGCT who were studied to identify prognostic factors and determine the best salvage treatment. Results: At the end of the first-line treatment, 10 and 9 children were in complete and incomplete remission, respectively. Events occurred within 2 years (5-23 months) after initial diagnosis. A progression was observed in 13 patients at least in one site initially involved. Two patients had a purely biological relapse (increase in isolated markers), and four patients had a purely metastatic relapse (brain location in three cases). After salvage treatment combining surgery and various types of chemotherapy (including high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) in 10 cases), the 5-year event-free survival and overall survival rates were of 26% (95%CI: 9.6-46.8%) and 32% (95%CI: 12.9-52.2%), respectively. Patients who underwent complete surgery (or without any detectable tumor) had higher survival rate than patients who underwent partial surgery or for whom surgery was not feasible (P=0.0003) at first relapse while this rate was similar between patients treated or not with HDCT. Conclusion: In pediatric recurrent or refractory NSGCT, complete excision of the tumor appears essential. The role of HDCT remains debated. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.