Prolonged survival following salvage surgery for chemorefractory ovarian immature teratoma: a case report and review of the literature.

Overview

BACKGROUND: Data regarding salvage surgery for ovarian immature teratoma (IT) are lacking despite its established role in the management of chemorefractory testicular germ cell tumors. In this report, a case of advanced IT that was salvaged by secondary cytoreduction following failure of both primary therapy and salvage chemotherapy is described, and the available literature is reviewed. CASE: A 28-year-old patient underwent primary cytoreductive surgery followed by platinum-based chemotherapy for stage IIIC, grade 3, ovarian IT. Second-line chemotherapy was administered after residual disease was identified at second-look surgery. Following failure of salvage chemotherapy, aggressive secondary debulking resulted in long-term disease-free survival of over 48 months. CONCLUSION: There appears to be a distinct role for salvage surgery in selected cases of chemorefractory IT. More studies are needed to further define the subset of patients who benefit most from this management approach.