Does the presence of extranodal extension in pathological stage B1 nonseminomatous germ cell tumor necessitate adjuvant chemotherapy?
PURPOSE: The presence of extranodal extension identified at primary retroperitoneal lymph node dissection has been associated with an increased risk of disease recurrence, and as such these patients are sometimes treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. We decided to evaluate the significance of extranodal extension on disease-free survival in patients with pathological stage B nonseminomatous germ cell tumor who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective review of our testicular cancer database was performed to identify all patients with clinical stage A nonseminomatous germ cell tumor who underwent primary retroperitoneal lymph node dissection and were found to have retroperitoneal metastasis with 5 or fewer involved nodes and no metastatic node larger than 2 cm. No patient received adjuvant chemotherapy, and all had a minimum followup of 24 months. A single pathologist (LC), who was blinded to clinical outcome, reviewed the retroperitoneal nodal package
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