title: A case of intraocular yolk sac tumor in a child and its pathogenesis.
abstract: While yolk sac tumor is one of the most common malignant germ cell tumors occurring in young children, it is rarely found in extragonadal sites. We report a case of intraocular yolk sac tumor in a 4-year-old boy. The diagnosis was confirmed by histologic examination and by the rapid normalization of serum alpha-fetoprotein level following enucleation. We propose that yolk sac cells can potentially migrate into the eye at 22 days of embryonic life during neural tube formation, when the head and tail of the neuropore open contemporaneously and communicate with the amniotic cavity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Osaka Medical Center and Research Institute for Maternal and Child Health, Osaka, Japan. takuan@med.u-toyama.ac.jp
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujino
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Okamura
authors.forename: Yoshikazu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hatsukawa
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: Masami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakayama
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D002830:Choroid Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D018240:Endodermal Sinus Tumor / Q000097:blood / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D015353:Eye Enucleation; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008297:Male; D019574:Optic Nerve Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D019572:Retinal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins