Ovarian germ cell cancer: Clinicopathologic analysis and outcome of 31 cases

Aims: The aim of the study was to evaluate some clinicopathologic character istics and the outcome of patients with ovarian germ cell cancer (OGCC) tre ated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Methods: It was a clinical retrospective study. The clinical charts of 31 p atients with OGCC assisted at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology o f the State University of Campinas, Brazil, from January 1986 to June 1997 were reviewed. Results: Ten patients had dysgerminoma and 21 patients nondysgerminomatous tumors. Women with dysgerminoma and nondysgerminomatous tumors did not pres ent differences regarding surgical staging, age, ascites or residual tumor after the Initial surgery. Frozen section, performed in 16 patients, showed some discrepancy with paraffin histology diagnosis in 8 patients. Platinum -based chemotherapy was used in 5/10 patients with dysgerminoma and in 17/2 1 patients with nondysgerminomatous tumors, with a 5-year survival of 100% for the dysgerminoma and 53% for the nondysgerminomatous group. Conclusions: women with dysgerminoma and nondysgerminomatous tumors did not present differences regarding clinicopathologic characteristics. The progn osis for patients with dysgerminoma was better than for those with nondysge rminomatous tumors. Frozen section had a high error rate in diagnosing OGCC intraoperatively.