title: Treatment of primary intracranial germ cell tumors: Single center experience with 42 clinically diagnosed cases.
abstract: Primary intracranial germ cell tumors (GCTs) are a class of heterogeneous tumors. Surgery can quickly relieve tumor compression and provide histological diagnosis. It is very difficult to treat some patients who are unable to be pathologically diagnosed. We aimed to analyze clinically diagnosed GCTs patients.
  
  
  
  Patients clinically diagnosed as primary intracranial GCTs were included in this study.
  
  
  
  From 2002 to 2015, 42 patients clinically diagnosed with primary intracranial GCTs received chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. Patients were assigned to diagnostic chemotherapy group (25 cases), diagnostic radiotherapy group (5 cases) and gamma knife radiosurgery group (12 cases) based on their initial anti-tumor therapy. The 5-year survival rates were 85.8%, 75.0% and 63.6%, respectively. There were no statistically significant difference (p value = 0.44). Patients were assigned to the group (30 cases) with secretory tumors and the group (12 cases) with non-secretory tumors based on their levels of tumor makers. The 5- year survival rates were 80.7% and 68.6%, respectively. There were no statistically significant difference (p value = 0.49).The major adverse reactions were grade III - IV bone marrow suppression with an incidence of 35.2% and grade II- III nausea/vomiting with an incidence of 45.8%.
  
  
  
  Surgical removal of tumor or biopsy is recognized as the most accurate method to determine the pathological property of tumor. But for some patients who can not be pathologically diagnosed, they can receive comprehensive treatments such as chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy, and some of them can still have good responses.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Neurosurgery/Neuro-Oncology at The Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Oncology, Guangzhou 510060, China.
authors.forename: Qun-Ying
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Neurosurgery/Neuro-Oncology at The Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Oncology, Guangzhou 510060, China.
authors.forename: Cheng-Cheng
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Radiotherapy at The Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Oncology, Guangzhou 510060, China.
authors.forename: Mei-Ling
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Neurosurgery/Neuro-Oncology at The Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Oncology, Guangzhou 510060, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Neurosurgery/Neuro-Oncology at The Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Oncology, Guangzhou 510060, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Neurosurgery/Neuro-Oncology at The Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Oncology, Guangzhou 510060, China.
authors.forename: Fu-Hua
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Neurosurgery/Neuro-Oncology at The Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Oncology, Guangzhou 510060, China.
authors.forename: Ji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Neurosurgery/Neuro-Oncology at The Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Oncology, Guangzhou 510060, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Bing
authors.initials: XB
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Neurosurgery/Neuro-Oncology at The Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Oncology, Guangzhou 510060, China.
authors.forename: Yong-Gao
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Mou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Neurosurgery/Neuro-Oncology at The Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Oncology, Guangzhou 510060, China.
authors.forename: Zhong-Ping
authors.initials: ZP
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001855:Bone Marrow Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D002648:Child; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004358:Drug Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D009384:Paraneoplastic Endocrine Syndromes / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D020250:Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting / Q000209:etiology; D016634:Radiosurgery / Q000009:adverse effects; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D016019:Survival Analysis; D055815:Young Adult; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C097353:AFP protein, human; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins
keywords: clinical diagnosis; diagnostic chemotherapy; diagnostic radiotherapy; primary intracranial germ cell tumor