ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Advanced seminoma is a rare clinicopathologic entity. To the authors' knowledge, very few sizeable reports published to date have studied the outcome of patients with advanced seminoma after first-line and salvage therapy, and few have dealt with prognostic factors initially or in patients with recurrent disease. METHODS: The records of 145 men with advanced seminoma who were treated with cisplatin-based first-line chemotherapy regimens were reviewed. Six patient characteristics, including age, prior radiotherapy, primary tumor site, initial serum lactate dehydrogenase and human chorionic gonadotropin levels, and disease stage, were studied as initial prognostic factors. In patients with recurrent disease, outcome according to the site of recurrence and the salvage treatment was also reviewed. RESULTS: A complete response was obtained in 130 patients (90%) after cisplatin-based first-line chemotherapy, and the 5-year overall survival rate was 81% (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 73-87%). Nonpulmonary visceral metastasis at diagnosis was the only initial adverse prognostic factor. Thirty-one patients (21%) developed recurrent disease. Recurrence in the liver or the central nervous system was a major adverse prognostic factor, with a 5-year overall survival rate of 7% (95% CI, 1-32%), compared with 58% (95% CI, 33-79%) in patients who had lymph node, lung, or bone recurrences. The only durable complete remission after a liver recurrence was obtained with high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation. All 12 patients who were treated for primary mediastinal seminoma with cisplatin-based chemotherapy alone were long-term disease free survivors. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the prognosis of patients with advanced seminoma was good after cisplatin-based, first-line chemotherapy. Metastasis in the liver or the central nervous system, initially or at recurrence, is currently the only proven adverse prognostic factor.