Prolonged survival following salvage surgery for chemorefractory ovarian immature teratoma: a case report and review of the literature.
BACKGROUND
Data regarding salvage surgery for ovarian immature teratoma (IT) are lacking despite its established role in the management of chemorefractory testicular germ cell tumors. In this report, a case of advanced IT that was salvaged by secondary cytoreduction following failure of both primary therapy and salvage chemotherapy is described, and the available literature is reviewed.


METHODS
A 28-year-old patient underwent primary cytoreductive surgery followed by platinum-based chemotherapy for stage IIIC, grade 3, ovarian IT. Second-line chemotherapy was administered after residual disease was identified at second-look surgery. Following failure of salvage chemotherapy, aggressive secondary debulking resulted in long-term disease-free survival of over 48 months.


CONCLUSIONS
There appears to be a distinct role for salvage surgery in selected cases of chemorefractory IT. More studies are needed to further define the subset of patients who benefit most from this management approach.
Rezk
Youssef
Y
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY 12208, USA.
Sheinfeld
Joel
J
Chi
Dennis S
DS
D000328:Adult; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000601:surgery*; D016879:Salvage Therapy; D013724:Teratoma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000601:surgery*