seminoma were reviewed, and the immunohistochemical staining patterns in 50 of these tumors were also analyzed. 1 Department of Pulmonary and Mediastinal Pa-
RESULTS.The patients were all men between the ages of 14 and 79 years (mean thology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, age, 46.5 years). Their clinical symptoms included cough, chest pain, and dyspnea. Washington, DC.In some patients, the lesions were asymptomatic and discovered incidentally on 2 Arkadi M. Rywlin Department of Pathology and routine chest radiographs. None of the patients had a previous history of testicular Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Medical Cenneoplasm or tumor elsewhere. Macroscopically, the tumors were described as soft ter and the University of Miami School of Mediand tan, with a slightly lobulated cut surface, and measured up to 16 cm in greatest cine, Miami, Florida.dimension. Histologically, the morphologic features were similar to those of tumors occurring in the gonads, namely, a neoplastic proliferation of round-to-polygonal cells with indistinct cell borders, clear-to-lightly-eosinophilic cytoplasm with roundto-oval nuclei and prominent nucleoli, associated with a prominent inflammatory background composed mainly of mature lymphocytes. Necrosis, hemorrhage, multinucleated giant cells, granulomatous reaction, and remnants of thymic tissue were observed in a variable number of cases; mitoses were rare. Immunohistochemical studies in 50 cases showed cytoplasmic staining with placental alkaline phosphatase in 80% of the tumors, focal dotlike positivity for CAM 5.2 low-molecular-weight keratins in 75%, focal cytoplasmic staining for wide-spectrum keratin in 70%, focal positive reaction with vimentin in 70%, and focal positivity with HCG in singly scattered cells in 5%. Immunostains for carcinoembryonic antigen, epithelial membrane antigen, and a-fetoprotein were negative in all the cases studied. Fifty patients were Stage I, 3 patients were Stage II, and 12 patients were Stage III. Clinical followup information was obtained for 65 cases (54%). Forty-nine patients were alive and disease free after a period ranging from 1 to 19 years (mean follow-up, 10 years). Sixteen patients died within the same period and were found to have metastases to distant organs. Of the 16 patients who died, 6 showed extension of the tumor outside of the mediastinal compartment at the time of initial diagnosis (Stage III lesions). Presented in part at the 85th annual meetingAside from clinical staging, the authors' findings also suggest that patients ú37 years of the United States and Canadian Academy of have worse outcomes than younger individuals. The authors were unable to find Pathology, Washington, DC, March 1996. any correlation between histopathologic features and clinical behavior in any of these cases. Address for reprints: Cesar A. Moran, M.D., De-