title: [Treatment of endodermal sinus tumor in children].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the treatment and outcome of childhood endodermal sinus tumor.
  
  
  METHODS
  The clinical data of twelve children with endodermal sinus tumor between April 2000 and July 2013 were reviewed. The basic demographics, stages of the lesion and the treatment outcome were analyzed. Of the twelve patients, seven were boys and five were girls. The age of the disease onset was between 1 and 3.3 years, except one in 11 years. Two patients were in Brodeur Stage I, four in Stage II, two in Stage III, and four in Stage IV. One patient underwent surgery alone, one underwent surgery plus a combination therapy with vincristine, actinomycin and cyclophosphamide (VAC), and the other ten were treated by surgery with the use of cisplatin, etoposide and bleomycin (PEB) before or after the operation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eleven patients were successfully followed up and ten were alive. The length of survival was 4.5 to 66 months in the 10 patients. In the 10 patients treated with PEB before or after surgery, 8 achieved complete remission, one achieved partial remission and one was not followed up. The major complications associated with the PEB regimen included myelosuppression and gastrointestinal upset symptoms and no late toxicity was observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Preoperative or postoperative administration of PEB may be an effective and safe management modality for childhood endodermal sinus tumor. Nevertheless, further validation is warranted in prospective studies involving a larger sample size.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, General Hospital of People's Liberation Army, Beijing 100853, China. suoqin@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Suo-Qin
authors.initials: SQ
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Feng
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D018240:Endodermal Sinus Tumor / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins