Anterior mediastinal germ cell tumors

Changed by Joachim Feger, 5 Jul 2021

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Germ cell tumours are one of the causes of an anterior mediastinal mass, and any of the germ cell histologies may be identified. They can therefore be divided histologically into:

mediastinal seminoma
non-seminomatous germ cell tumours (NSGCT)
- embryonal carcinoma
- choriocarcinoma
- yolk sac tumour
- teratoma: most common
- mixed germ cell tumour

Alternatively, anterior mediastinal germ cell tumours can be thought of as benign and malignant ¹:

benign
- mature teratoma
- mature teratoma with an immature component of less than 50% ¹
malignant
- all others

Mature teratomas are the most frequent histology encountered in the mediastinum (see mediastinal teratoma) and account for ~60% (range 50-70%) of all mediastinal germ cell tumours ².

It is difficult to distinguish between the various malignant histologies, and clinical correlation with serum tumour markers (AFP, beta-HCG) and biopsy is usually required.

~~-<li><a title="Choriocarcinoma of the mediastinum" href="/articles/mediastinal-choriocarcinoma">choriocarcinoma</a></li>~~
+<li><a href="/articles/mediastinal-choriocarcinoma">choriocarcinoma</a></li>
~~-<li><a href="/articles/mixed-germ-cell-tumour">mixed germ cell tumour</a></li>~~
+<li><a title="Mixed germ cell tumour of the mediastinum" href="/articles/mixed-germ-cell-tumour-of-the-mediastinum">mixed germ cell tumour</a></li>

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Anterior mediastinal germ cell tumors

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