205 patients with germ cell tumors were entered into the GPO Cooperative Study MAKEI 83/86 and classified as follows: 97 teratomas, 66 yolk sac tumors, 22 dysgerminomas, 17 embryonal carcinomas and three choriocarcinomas; 20% of all tumors were classified as mixed histology. Predominant primary sites were the ovaries (91 pts), the saccrococcygeal region (74 pts), the mediastinum (12 pts), the peritoneal cavity (10 pts) and other sites (18 pts). The treatment of teratomas was primarily surgery. Localised dysgerminomas received radiotherapy following surgery, in advanced stages (III, IV) four courses of chemotherapy vinblastine 3 mg/m2/day (days 1 + 2), bleomycin 15 mg/m2/day (days 1-3) and cisplatinum 20 mg/m2/day (days 4-8) (VBC) were applied. The other fully malignant tumors received four courses of VBC chemotherapy, in extragonadal primary tumors and advanced stages of all sites additional four courses of VP16 100 mg/m2/day (days 1-3), ifosfamide 1500 mg/m2/day (days 1-5) and cisplatin 20 mg/m2/day (days 1-5) (VPIC) were administered. To avoid mutilating surgery in advanced disease, four courses of VBC chemotherapy were administered prior to resection. The relapse-free survival according to Kaplan-Meier for protocol patients with teratomas is 0.97 +/- 0.01, for dysgerminomas 0.73 +/- 0.09 and for other fully malignant histologic entities 0.81 +/- 0.02 with a median period of observation of 31 months. The toxicity mainly consisted of myelosuppression during VPIC chemotherapy in 39 of 62 pts resulting in twelve incidents of sepsis with lethal outcome in two pts. Impaired renal function was reported in 14 pts, the incidence of neuropathy, ototoxicity and pulmonary toxicity was negligible. For the follow-up study a reduction in chemotherapy seems justified in patients with favourable prognosis. The substitution of VP16 for vinblastine may result in reduced toxicity.
