ABSTRACT
The past two decades have been characterized by a dramatic improvement of the prognosis of malignant germcell tumors (GCTs) in all localizations, in both the adult and the pediatric populations. This can be attributed mainly to national and international cooperative therapeutic protocols that have utilized cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy integrated into a multimodal therapeutic approach. Although the first pediatric trials were designed in the light of the previous experience in malignant testicular GCTs in adults, these studies soon revealed the particular clinical and biological features of childhood GCT. Moreover, the early observations have allowed tailoring of therapy more specifically to the pediatric setting and the introduction of stratification of chemotherapy according to risk groups with respect to the parameters of age, histology, primary site, and stage.
