Testicular germ cell cancer is aetiologically linked to genital malformations and male infertility and is most probably caused by a disruption of embryonic programming and gonadal development during fetal life. In some cases, germ cell neoplasia is associated with a relative reduction of Y chromosomal material (e.g. 45,X/46,XY) or other abnormalities of the Y chromosome. The euchromatic long ar...

Testicular neoplasms occur in more than 90% of cases, due to primary testicular germ cell tumors. Other entities are non germ cell tumors of the testis, testicular manifestation of lymphomas or metastases. International and interdisciplinary co-operation has led to the development of urological guidelines and to good therapeutic success for testicular neoplasms. The gold standard for treatment ...

5 Original Publications 8 Abbreviations 9 Introduction 10 Review of the Literature 11 1. Germ cells 11 1.1 Inner cell mass and embryonic stem cells 11 1.2 Factors essential for maintenance of pluripotency and self-renewal 11 1.3 Development and migration of germ cells 14 2. Gonadal development 16 2.1 Ovarian differ entiation 17 2.2 Testicular differentiation 18 3. GATA transcription factors in ...

The group of postpubertal testicular germ cell tumours encompasses lesions with highly diverse differentiation - seminomas, embryonal carcinomas, yolk sac tumours, teratomas and choriocarcinomas. Heterogeneous differentiation is often present within individual tumours and the correct identification of the components is of clinical relevance. HMGA2 re-expression has been reported in many tumours...

BACKGROUND Testicular germ cell tumours are the most frequent cancer of young men with an increasing incidence all over the world. Pathogenesis and reasons of this increase remain unknown but epidemiological and clinical data have suggested that fetal exposure to environmental endocrine disruptors (EEDs) with estrogenic effects, could participate to testicular germ cell carcinogenesis. However,...

BACKGROUND Between 2% and 5% of malignant germ-cell tumors in men arise at extragonadal sites. Of extragonadal germ cell tumors, testicular carcinoma in situ (CIS) are present in 31-42% of cases, and CIS are reported to have low sensitivity to chemotherapy in spite of the various morphology and to have a high likelihood of developing into testicular tumors. A testicular biopsy may thus be highl...

CONTEXT The medical treatment of advanced testicular germ cell tumors has changed over the past 30 years, with long-term survival now achieved in the majority of patients. Clinicians need to be familiar with the available treatment regimens for testicular cancer and their associated toxic effects. OBJECTIVE To review the treatments used for advanced testicular germ cell tumors and their assoc...

BACKGROUND Estrogens exert a role on germ cell physiology of normal human testis through the mediation of the estrogen receptor (ER) beta subtypes. Epidemiological studies evidenced an increased incidence of testicular germ cell cancer after elevated pre-natal estrogen exposure but the expression of estrogen receptors in these testicular neoplasms has not been well elucidated. METHODS Immunoh...

Most human tumors, including most male genital tumors, exhibit an exponential increase in incidence with advancing age of the host. This exponential age-incidence pattern can be explained by the accumulation of mutations in the stem cells of the tissues of tumor origin. The age-incidence pattern for testicular tumors, however, is unique with a large linear increase in incidence from age 14 to 3...