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Ann Thorac Surg 1998;66:606
© 1998 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

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Correspondence

Reply

^a Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Ave, New York, NY 10021, USA

To the Editor

My colleagues and I thank Dr Massard and his colleagues for responding to our article on the growing teratoma syndrome [1] with a report on an additional patient. Their case makes several important points. (1) Growth during treatment is more common than expected. This may require surgical resection before the completion of chemotherapy. If so, then chemotherapy should be restarted as soon as possible after surgical resection, preferably during the same admission. The need for an urgent operation should be avoided. (2) These tumors can be very large, but still resectable by an experienced surgeon. (3) Resection should only be attempted when the markers have normalized or are clearly in the midst of normal half-life clearance. (4) Regrowth of small, unresected lesions occurs regularly and, in the absence of elevated markers, should be approached surgically. This is an underrecognized problem in the management of all germ cell tumors, not just those arising in the mediastinum.

References

1. Afifi H.Y., Bosl G.J., Burt M.E. Mediastinal growing teratoma syndrome. Ann Thorac Surg 1997;64:359-362.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bosl, G. J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Bosl, G. J.