Medical and surgical management of pulmonary metastases from germ cell tumors.

Overview

GCT is considered a curable tumor with a greater than 90% overall long-term survival. Pulmonary metastasis is common in patients with disseminated disease. First-line therapy in the management of patients with pulmonary metastases from germ cell tumors is cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Pulmonary metastasectomy has an important adjuvant role in a subset of patients who have residual radiographic abnormalities or progression of disease despite optimal chemotherapy. Surgical resection of residual pulmonary and mediastinal disease provides an accurate response assessment and consolidates the chemotherapy by removal of any viable GCT. Therefore, surgical resection of all residual masses is indicated in patients with NSGCT and normalized serum value of tumor markers after definitive systemic chemotherapy. Surgical resection or biopsy is a reasonable alternative in residual seminoma > or = 3 cm in diameter.