Bilateral testicular germ cell tumors

Abstract

The overall incidence of bilateral testicular germ cell tumors was 1% in patients who were treated at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center over the past two decades. The incidence of bilateral germ cell tumors was related to the histologic type of the initial tumor and to the patient's age at initial presentation in patients with seminoma. Thus, patients in the second or third decade of life who presented with seminomas as their initial tumor were more likely to develop a second germ cell tumor compared with patients in the fourth or fifth decade of life. These findings have potentially important implications for clinical management by identifying a population of patients with germ cell tumors who are at risk of developing a second tumor and also for studying risk factors of bilateral germ cell tumors of the testis.