[Clinical presentation, treatment, and follow-up of 32 patients with a primary intracranial germinoma, registered during the previous 15 years in the Dutch Pathological-Anatomical National Automated Archive (PALGA)].

OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of clinical presentation, treatment and follow-up of patients with intracranial germinoma in the Netherlands.

DESIGN: Retrospective.

METHOD: The case histories of 32 patients with histologically verified intracranial germinoma, registered in the period 1983-1999 in the Pathological Anatomical Nationwide Automated Archive (PALGA), were studied. Fifty of the 59 registered patients were found of whom 6 had no germinoma. Informed consent was obtained from 32 of the 44 patients with respect to studying their medical records for age, symptoms at presentation, diagnostic investigations, presence of tumour markers, treatment and follow up.

RESULTS: The patient group consisted of 23 men and 9 women aged 6 to 35.6 years (mean: 17.3) and was subdivided with respect to their tumour localization. In patients with pineal localization symptoms of increased intracranial pressure and eye movement disorders were most prominent, whereas in patients with suprasellar localization endocrine disorders prevailed. Thirty-one patients were treated with radiotherapy, one with combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy and one surgically. Twenty-six patients had remained disease free after a median follow-up of 39 months (range: 0-144 months). One patient developed an intracranial embryonal carcinoma and another a testis seminoma. Two patients died because of recurrences. Two other patients died of causes not directly related to the germinoma.

CONCLUSION: At the time of this study 84% of all patients treated with radiotherapy were disease-free. Although the percentage patients who had recovered after treatment (surgical and radiotherapy) was high, many patients either already had or subsequently developed neurological and endocrinological deficiencies.