Congenital anomalies in children with testicular germ cell tumor

Testicular Germ Cell Tumor and down Syndrome

The association between Down syndrome and testicular germ cell tumors may be more frequent than expected according to chance, but few reports have focused on this excess. We report two cases of this association and review the English medical literature.

Syndromic aspects of testicular carcinoma

BACKGROUND

In patients with hereditary or constitutional chromosomal anomalies, testicular carcinoma can develop sporadically or on the basis of an underlying hereditary genetic defect. Greater knowledge of these genetic defects would provide more insight into the molecular pathways that lead to testicular carcinoma. To the authors' knowledge, little attention has been paid to date to the comorbid occurrence of testicular carcinoma in patients with hereditary disorders or constitutional chromosomal anomalies.

METHODS

The authors performed a review of the literature.

RESULTS

Twenty-five different hereditary disorders or constitutional chromosomal anomalies have been reported in patients who developed seminomatous or nonseminomatous testicular carcinoma.

CONCLUSIONS

Although most of these malignancies were too rare to enable the detection of statistically significant correlations between the chromosomal/hereditary disorder and the testicular tumor, it was striking that many of the patients had also other urogenital abnormalities. Susceptibility to urogenital abnormalities seems to disrupt normal urogenital differentiation and suggests a correlation with testicular dysgenesis and, thus, also with testicular carcinoma. Other evidence of causal involvement has been found in the field of tumor cytogenetics. Some of the genes responsible for hereditary disorders have been mapped to regions that are of interest in the development of sporadic testicular carcinoma. Molecular studies on candidate genes will be required to provide definite answers. Completion of the human gene map and the availability of advanced gene arrays and bioinformatics are expected to greatly facilitate further exploration of the role of hereditary genetic defects in testicular carcinoma.

Retrocaval ureter and associated abnormalities

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the association of retrocaval ureter with other congenital abnormalities.

METHODS AND PATIENTS

Two new cases of retrocaval ureter are discussed and a detailed electronic search of the literature was mainly focused on the concomitant abnormalities. The first of our patients had also a glandular hypospadias and a supernumerary lumbar vertebra, while the second one had syndactylia (fixed toes) in both feet. Results. The review of the literature revealed that 21% of the cases of retrocaval ureter present with concomitant abnormalities mainly from the cardiovascular system and the genitourinary tract.

CONCLUSION

Diagnosis of retrocaval ureter should increase the awareness of the responsible physician on the possibility of concomitant malformations where treatment could prevent future symptoms.

Down syndrome associated with a retroperitoneal teratoma and Morgagni hernia

Down syndrome may be associated with many complications. Among the malignancies associated with Down syndrome, leukaemia is the most common. This is a case report of a patient with Down syndrome associated with both a retroperitoneal teratoma and a Morgagni hernia.

Aspects of the neoplasms observed in patients with constitutional autosomal trisomy

A review of the literature reveals numerous clinical case reports, systematic histologic analyses, epidemiologic studies, and large series of tumors showing that subjects with trisomy 8, 9, 13, 18, and 21 have an excess of hematologic and various solid tumors compared to the general population. These tumors more frequently affect particular organs for a given type of trisomy. A large proportion of tumors are observed during fetal and neonatal life, are incompletely developed, and subsequently regress. In older children or even adults, tumors are less frequent, are often found on the same organs as earlier in life, are more aggressive, and do not involute. The mechanism responsible for the development of these neoplasms could be similar to that which generates the malformations in these children and may result from cooperation of the chromosomal abnormality with physiologic growth phenomena, which are particularly active early in life. Trisomic subjects must be carefully followed in order to detect tumors as early as possible and to allow treatment under optimal conditions.

Testicular germ cell tumours of childhood in Denmark, 1943-1989: incidence and evaluation of histology using immunohistochemical techniques

In the Danish Cancer Registry, 72 testicular tumours in boys younger than 15 years of age were recorded during the period 1943-1989 and material from 34 of these was retrieved from Danish departments of pathology. The histological types were evaluated and the role of immunohistochemical staining was analysed. The survival of the patients was correlated with the histological diagnoses, and changes in the incidence of testicular cancers in childhood were analysed. Twenty-nine of the 34 patients had germ cell tumours, which fell into two groups (infantile and pubertal) with distinct differences. The tumours of infancy usually presented before the age of 3 years and were either pure yolk sac tumours or teratomas. The tumours of puberty showed no morphological or immunohistochemical differences from adult germ cell tumours. In the infantile group, immunohistochemical staining confirmed the morphological evaluation but was not necessary for diagnosis. Patients in the infantile group seemed to have a better prognosis than adult patients, only one patient dying from his disease, whereas the pubertal patients seemed to have a prognosis similar to that of adult patients. The incidence of infantile testicular cancer in Denmark appears to have increased at almost the same rate as that observed in adult men, but due to the small numbers in infancy, this cannot be statistically substantiated. We conclude that the testicular germ cell tumours of infancy and puberty may arise from different precursor cells, but both groups seem to arise prenatally.

A case of mosaic Down's syndrome concomitant with ganglioneuroma

We present the case of a 6-year-old boy with concomitant mosaic Down's syndrome and ganglioneuroma. To our knowledge, this is the first case report illustrating this association.

Testicular cancer and antecedent diseases

A case-control study of the aetiology of testicular cancer was conducted using information obtained by interview and from case-notes of 259 cases with testicular cancer and two sets of control patients -238 men with diagnoses other than testicular cancer attending the same radiotherapy centres as those attended by the cases, and 251 hospital in-patients not attending radiotherapy departments. Logistic regression analyses were performed, after stratifying by age and region of residence, to estimate the relative risks (RRs) associated with various aspects of prior medical history. The risk of testicular cancer was found to be raised for men with a history of cryptorchidism (RR based on comparison with all controls = 6.3; P less than 0.001), inguinal hernia (RR = 1.6; P = 0.14), mumps orchitis (RR = 12.7; P = 0.006), atopy (RR = 1.8; P = 0.03), and meningitis (RR = 3.0; P = 0.21). Inguinal herniorrhaphy before the age of 15 years was particularly a risk factor for seminoma, whereas the relative risks were similar for seminoma and teratoma for the other factors. The results add to the growing evidence that congenital abnormalities involving the process of testicular descent and closure of the processus vaginalis are risk factors for testicular cancer, and that some types of testicular damage later in life may also be important. The findings of associations with previous atopy and certain infections suggest a possible second aetiological mechanism - that immunological abnormalities may be associated with an increased risk of testis cancer.

Supernumerary nipples and urologic malignancies

The prevalence of five minor malformations and three palmar or finger crease abnormalities was determined in a total of 203 patients with urologic malignancies. An equal number of control individuals with acute infections or cardiopulmonary complaints was matched consecutively to the patients by sex and age. A significantly higher frequency of supernumerary nipples was found in all types of urologic tumors examined: the total prevalence was 32 of 203 in the patients, and four of 203 in the controls (p less than 0.001). Bifid uvula, preauricular pits, and abnormal palmar creases were also slightly more common in the patients, but the differences were not statistically significant.

Intracranial germ-cell tumors: natural history and pathogenesis

The natural history of primary intracranial germ-cell tumors (GCT's) is defined from 389 previously published cases, of which 65% were germinomas, 18% teratomas, 5% embryonal carcinomas, 7% endodermal sinus tumors, and 5% choriocarcinomas. Intracranial GCT's display specificity in site of origin. Ninety-five percent arise along the midline from the suprasellar cistern (37%) to the pineal gland (48%), and an additional 6% involve both sites. The majority of germinomas (57%) arise in the suprasellar cistern, while most nongerminomatous GCT's (68%) preferentially involve the pineal gland (p less than 0.0001). The age distribution of afflicted patients is unimodal, centering with an abrupt surge in frequency in the early pubertal years; 68% of patients are diagnosed between 10 and 21 years of age. Nongerminomatous GCT's demonstrate an earlier age of onset than do germinomas (p less than 0.0001). Prolonged symptomatic intervals prior to diagnosis are common in germinomas (p = 0.0007), in suprasellar GCT's (p = 0.001), and among females (p = 0.02). Parasellar germinomas commonly present with diabetes insipidus, visual field defects, and hypothalamic-pituitary failure. Nongerminomatous GCT's present as posterior third ventricular masses with hydrocephalus and midbrain compression. Germ-cell tumors may infiltrate the hypothalamus (11%), or disseminate to involve the third ventricle (22%) and spinal cord (10%). Among a subpopulation of 263 conventionally treated patients, two factors were of prognostic significance: 1) histological diagnosis; germinomas were associated with significantly longer survival than nongerminomatous GCT's (p less than 0.0001); and 2) staging of the extent of disease; this emphasizes the ominous character of involvement of the hypothalamus (p = 0.0002), third ventricle (p = 0.02), or spinal cord (p = 0.01). Specific recommendations regarding the necessity of histological diagnosis and staging of the extent of disease are made in light of modern chemotherapeutic advances. The pathogenesis of GCT's may be revealed by their specificity of origin within the positive (suprasellar cistern-suprachiasmatic nucleus) and negative (pineal) regulatory centers for gonadotropin secretion within the diencephalon. The abrupt rise in age distribution at 10 to 12 years suggests that the neuroendocrine events of puberty are an "activating" influence in the malignant expression of these embryonal tumors.

Giant seminoma of undescended testis in Down syndrome

A giant seminoma of undescended testis in a forty-one-year-old Japanese male with Down syndrome is reported as is a review of the literature. The relationship between Down syndrome and testicular cancer are discussed. To our knowledge this is the largest seminoma of undescended testis (weight 3,500 Gm) so far recorded.

Father-son testicular (teratocarcinoma) malignancy

A case report of father-son testicular cancers, both teratocarcinomas, is presented and genetic considerations discussed.

A case-control study of the aetiology of cryptorchidism

A study of cryptorchidism was undertaken based on patients identified through the Oxford Record Linkage Study. The cumulative lifetime incidence of archidopexy among males in the study area was estimated to be 3.38%; 88% of orchidopexies were performed on males aged 5 years and over and 32% on those aged 10 and over. In a case-control study with 146 cases ascertained at orchidopexy and 146 matched controls there was a substantially increased risk of cryptorchidism for those who had undergone breech labour. Raised risks of cryptorchidism were found for boys born to mothers who were primigravidas or aged under 20, and a significantly reduced risk was found for boys whose mothers were of B blood group. There was a gradient of increasing risk with decreasing birth weight and a significantly raised risk associated with clinical inguinal hernia. Since cryptorchidism and testicular cancer share several risk factors, it may be profitable to study newly identified risk factors for cryptorchidism in relation to testicular cancer.