Growing teratoma syndrome is the term applied to enlarging retroperitoneal or other metastatic masses containing mature teratoma during chemotherapy for nonseminomatous germ cell tumors. Four cases of the growing teratoma syndrome are presented, the metastatic masses being in the retroperitoneal in all the cases. All these patients had enlarging retroperitoneal masses in the presence of normal serum biomarkers following chemotherapy for nonseminomatous tumors. Surgical excision was carried out in all four patients, with disease free survivals ranging from 6 to 24 months after surgery.

Forty-seven patients with renal cell carcinoma with tumor thrombus extension to the renal vein or inferior vena cava (IVC) were treated surgically over a 10-year period. There were 41 males and 6 females with a mean age of 45.7 years. Thirty-three patients had right-sided and 14 had left-sided tumors. Patients with renal vein or infrahepatic IVC thrombus were treated with radical nephrectomy with tumor thrombus excision after achieving conventional vascular control over the IVC and the opposite renal vein. Four patients with retrohepatic IVC thrombus were treated with venacavotomy and thrombectomy after achieving vascular control above the thrombus but below the hepatic veins while two other patients with retrohepatic and one with suprahepatic thrombus required a bifemoroatrial partial venous bypass prior to tumor thrombectomy. There was one postoperative death due to pulmonary embolism. The actuarial 5-year survival for all patients with venous extention was 50% and the median survival was 4.35 years. Perinephric spread and lymph node metastases were significant prognostic factors affecting survival. This suggests that it is the locoregional spread of renal cell carcinoma rather than the level of the thrombus which governs the prognosis of patients with tumor thrombus extension to the renal vein or IVC. 0 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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A total of 177 patients with invasive transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder underwent radical cystoprostatectomy, of whom 13 underwent simultaneous urethrectomy. The remaining 164 patients were followed up regularly with urethroscopy and urethral cytology. Fifteen patients developed urethral recurrences, 4 of which were associated with relapses at other sites (recurrence rate 9%), with a mean recurrence-free interval of 13.5 months. Nine of the 11 patients with isolated urethral recurrences underwent total urethrectomy and all except 1 are alive and disease-free 2 to 8 years later. One patient was salvaged by radiation therapy and refused further treatment. The 4 patients with other associated relapses died within 18 months. The urethral recurrence rate was correlated to different risk groups defined on the basis of tumour characteristics in the cystectomy specimen. This revealed a 70% urethral recurrence rate in the high risk group, 9.6% in the moderate risk group and 1.2% in the low risk group. However, no conclusion could be drawn regarding the influence of prostatic involvement on the urethral recurrence rate.

Thirty two patients--23 males and 9 females with a mean age of 52.5 years--underwent planned partial cystectomy for histologically proved muscle invasive bladder cancer. Twenty patients had transitional cell carcinoma and 12 had adenocarcinoma of the bladder. One patient had well-differentiated, 18 had moderately differentiated, and 13 had poorly differentiated tumours. The tumour size was < 2 cm in 7 patients, 2-4 cm in 19 patients, and > 4 cm in 6 patients. Patients with single primary muscle invasive tumours situated in the upper half of the bladder were considered eligible for partial cystectomy. The presence of multicentric urothelial disease, of dysplasia, or carcinoma-in-situ in bladder mucosa away from the tumour on multiple random punch biopsies was considered contraindications to partial cystectomy. All patients underwent partial cystectomy with bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy. The tumour-free margins of resection were confirmed by intraoperative frozen section examination. The bladder was closed primarily in all patients, although three patients required re-implantation of the ureter. No patient received adjuvant radiation or chemotherapy. Five patients had pathological stage B1 (T2), 18 had B2 (T3A), and 9 had C (T3B) disease. No patient had metastatic pelvic lymph nodes. There was one postoperative death due to unrelated medical cause. Five patients had minor complications that resolved with conservative measures. All patients had adequate bladder capacity of > 250 cc at 6 months after surgery, and none had symptoms attributable to reduced bladder capacity. The overall actuarial survival was 80.1% at 5 years.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)