scholarly journals Rare inactivating PDE11A variants associated with testicular germ cell tumors

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 909-917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anand Pathak ◽  
Douglas R Stewart ◽  
Fabio R Faucz ◽  
Paraskevi Xekouki ◽  
Sara Bass ◽  
...  

Germline inactivating mutations of isoform 4 of phosphodiesterase (PDE) 11A (coded by the PDE11A gene) have been associated with familial adrenocortical tumors and familial testicular cancer. Testicular tissue is unique in expressing all four isoforms of PDE11A. In a prior candidate gene study of 94 familial testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) subjects, we identified a significant association between the presence of functionally abnormal variants in PDE11A and familial TGCT risk. To validate this novel observation, we sequenced the PDE11A coding region in 259 additional TGCT patients (both familial and sporadic) and 363 controls. We identified 55 PDE11A variants: 20 missense, four splice-site, two nonsense, seven synonymous, and 22 intronic. Ten missense variants were novel; nine occurred in transcript variant 4 and one in transcript variant 3. Five rare mutations (p.F258Y, p.G291R, p.V820M, p.R545X, and p.K568R) were present only in cases and were significantly more common in cases vs controls (P=0.0037). The latter two novel variants were functionally characterized and shown to be functionally inactivating, resulting in reduced PDE activity and increased cAMP levels. In further analysis of this cohort, we focused on white participants only to minimize confounding due to population stratification. This study builds upon our prior reports implicating PDE11A variants in familial TGCT, provides the first independent validation of those findings, extends that work to sporadic testicular cancer, demonstrates that these variants are uncommonly but reproducibly associated with TGCT, and refines our understanding regarding which specific inactivating PDE11A variants are most likely to be associated with TGCT risk.

1989 ◽  
Vol 75 (5) ◽  
pp. 505-509
Author(s):  
Sergio Crispino ◽  
Gabriele Tancini ◽  
Sandro Barni ◽  
Paolo Lissoni

To investigate the function of the hypothalamic-hypophyseal-gonadal axis in testicular germ cell tumors, we evaluated gonadotropin responses to gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) in 12 untreated patients with testicular cancer (5 seminomas and 7 non-seminomas). GnRH was given i.v. at a dose of 100 μg as a bolus, and venous blood samples were collected at 0, 20, 60, and 120 min. As controls, 14 healthy males were studied. Basal levels of testosterone, estradiol and prolactin were also detected in each patient. Hormonal serum concentrations were measured by the radioimmunoassay. Mean basal testosterone, estradiol and prolactin levels were not significantly different from those of controls. Patients had a lower FSH and LH peak after GnRH than controls, without, however, any significant difference. As regards histology, nonseminoma patients lacked an FSH response to GnRH and had statistically lower mean peak levels than controls. Moreover, non-seminoma patients had statistically lower mean peak values of LH after GnRH than controls. These data show that patients with testicular germ cell tumor, and more particularly those with non-seminomas, have an altered function of the hypothalamic-hypophyseal-gonadal axis, which is already present prior to therapy. Further studies, particularly in stage I patients treated only with orchiectomy, should be performed to confirm and better define the Physiopathologic significance of the altered hypothalamic-hypophyseal-gonadal axis in testicular cancer and to clarify the alteration of fertility, which is frequently present before treatment.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 129-137
Author(s):  
T. V. Ustinova ◽  
L. V. Bolotina ◽  
A. A. Fedenko ◽  
H. S. Gevorgyan ◽  
A. A. Paichadze ◽  
...  

Testicular cancer is a rare malignant tumor. In the structure of general cancer incidence, this nosology accounts for about 1–1.5% of cases. Among this pathology, about 90–95% is due to testicular germ cell tumors. Currently, testicular cancer is a potentially treatable solid tumor with a 10-year survival rate of more than 95% upon timely diagnosis and proper treatment. In this regard, early diagnosis and treatment of this pathology is an urgent task today. The article presents a clinical observation of the treatment of a patient with a testicular germ cell tumor. The presented clinical case demonstrates the successful conduct of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and further orchifuniculectomy in the presence of distant metastases namely in case of a non-seminomic form of a testicular germ cell tumor. The approach to treating patients with testicular tumors must be individualized and take into account both the potential gain and the potential risks of the treatment being performed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 575-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Chieffi

Background: Testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) is the most common solid malignancy occurring in young men between 20 and 34 years of age, and its incidence has increased significantly over the last decades. TGCTs can be subdivided into seminoma and nonseminoma germ cell tumors (NSGCTs), which includes yolk sac tumor, choriocarcinoma, embryonal cell carcinoma, and teratoma. Seminomas and NSGCTs present significant differences in therapy, prognosis, and both show characteristics of the Primordial Germ Cells (PGCs). Methods: I undertook a search of bibliographic data from peer-reviewed research literature. Results: Seventy papers were included in the mini-review showing that a large number of new biomarkers have given further advantages to discriminate the different histotypes and could represent useful novel molecular targets for anticancer strategies. Conclusion: A deeper understanding of the pathogenesis of TGCTs is likely to significantly improve not only our knowledge on stem cells and oncogenesis but also the disease management with more selective tumor treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 107602962110247
Author(s):  
Hikmat Abdel-Razeq ◽  
Faris Tamimi ◽  
Rashid Abdel-Razeq ◽  
Samer Salah ◽  
Zaid Omari ◽  
...  

Malignancy, including testicular tumors, significantly increases the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). In this study, we search for predictors that may help identify subgroups of patients at higher risk of VTE. Patients with confirmed diagnosis of testicular germ cell tumor and proven VTE were identified. Clinical and pathological features possibly associated with VTE were reviewed. A total of 322 patients, median age (range) 31 (18-76) years were identified. Tumors were mostly non-seminoma (n = 194, 60.2%), node-positive (n = 130, 40.4%) and 58 (18.0%) had metastatic disease at diagnosis. Venous thromboembolism were confirmed in 27 (8.4%) patients; however, rates were significantly higher ( P < 0.001) in patients with node-positive (18.5%), metastatic disease (22.4%), and those with high lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (21.3%). Rates were also significantly higher among those who received multiple lines of chemotherapy (27.5%) compared to those who received one line (13.8%) or none (<1.0%), P < 0.001. Patients with testicular tumors and high tumor burden, including nodal involvement, high LDH or metastatic disease, and those treated with multiple lines of chemotherapy have significantly higher rates of VTE.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
João Lobo ◽  
Vera Constâncio ◽  
Pedro Leite-Silva ◽  
Rita Guimarães ◽  
Mariana Cantante ◽  
...  

AbstractTesticular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) are among the most common solid malignancies in young-adult men, and currently most mortality is due to metastatic disease and emergence of resistance to cisplatin. There is some evidence that increased methylation is one mechanism behind this resistance, stemming from individual studies, but approaches based on matched primary and metastatic patient samples are lacking. Herein, we provide an EPIC array-based study of matched primary and metastatic TGCT samples. Histology was the major determinant of overall methylation pattern, but some clustering of samples related to response to cisplatin was observed. Further differential analysis of patients with the same histological subtype (embryonal carcinoma) disclosed a remarkable increase in net methylation levels (at both promoter and CpG site level) in the patient with cisplatin-resistant disease and poor outcome compared to the patient with complete response to chemotherapy. This further confirms the recent results of another study performed on isogenic clones of sensitive and resistant TGCT cell lines. Differentially methylated promoters among groups of samples were mostly not shared, disclosing heterogeneity in patient tissue samples. Finally, gene ontology analysis of cisplatin-resistant samples indicated enrichment of differentially hypermethylated promoters on pathways related to regulation of immune microenvironment, and enrichment of differentially hypomethylated promoters on pathways related to DNA/chromatin binding and regulation. This data supports not only the use of hypomethylating agents for targeting cisplatin-resistant disease, but also their use in combination with immunotherapies and chromatin remodelers.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 776
Author(s):  
Katarina Letkovska ◽  
Pavel Babal ◽  
Zuzana Cierna ◽  
Silvia Schmidtova ◽  
Veronika Liskova ◽  
...  

Apoptosis is a strictly regulated process essential for preservation of tissue homeostasis. This study aimed to evaluate expression of apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) in testicular germ cell tumors (GCTs) and to correlate expression patterns with clinicopathological variables. Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded specimens of non-neoplastic testicular tissue and GCTs obtained from 216 patients were included in the study. AIF expression was detected by immunohistochemistry, scored by the multiplicative quickscore method (QS). Normal testicular tissue exhibits higher cytoplasmic granular expression of AIF compared to GCTs (mean QS = 12.77 vs. 4.80, p < 0.0001). Among invasive GCTs, mean QS was the highest in embryonal carcinoma, yolk sac tumor and seminoma, lower in teratoma and the lowest in choriocarcinoma. No nuclear translocation of AIF was observed. Nonpulmonary visceral metastases were associated with lower AIF expression. Metastatic GCTs patients with high AIF expression had better overall survival compared to patients with low AIF expression (HR = 0.26, 95% CI 0.11–0.62, p = 0.048). We observed significantly lower AIF expression in GCTs compared to normal testicular tissue, which is an uncommon finding in malignant tumors. AIF downregulation might represent one of the mechanisms of inhibition of apoptosis and promotion of cell survival in GCTs.


2000 ◽  
Vol 86 (5) ◽  
pp. 431-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
María José Villanueva ◽  
Fátima Navarro ◽  
Antonio Sánchez ◽  
Mariano Provencio ◽  
Félix Bonilla ◽  
...  

The association between Down syndrome and testicular germ cell tumors may be more frequent than expected according to chance, but few reports have focused on this excess. We report two cases of this association and review the English medical literature.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (7_suppl) ◽  
pp. 523-523
Author(s):  
Ning-Ning Lu ◽  
Aaron Richard Hansen ◽  
Philippe L. Bedard ◽  
Padraig Richard Warde ◽  
Joan Sweet ◽  
...  

523 Background: Bilateral testicular germ cell tumours (BTC) form a small minority of testicular cancer and detailed management data are sparse. Methods: Bilateral testicular cancer (BTC) patients managed at a single cancer centre were retrospectively analyzed. Synchronous BTC was defined as uni+contralateral presentation within 3 months. Patient characteristics, treatment and outcomes were collected. Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS). Results: Between Jan 1971 to Jun 2018, 118 pts were included. Nine patients (7.6%) had cryptorchidism. Twenty-two patients (18.6%) had synchronous BTC at median age of 30(21-54) years, 11 presented with concordant histology (10-seminoma). Median follow-up time was 96(1-220) months. Two of 14 patients (14%) with stage I disease on surveillance had retroperitoneal nodal recurrence, other 3 (21%) had testicular recurrence after partial orchiectomy alone. No recurrence occurred for 8 stage II/III patients (36%) who received stage-appropriate treatment. All patients were alive without disease at last follow-up. For metachronous BTC, the median age was 27(16-68) and 37(19-78) years for first and second diagnosis, respectively. The median time interval was 88 (8-352) months, with shorter interval when second primary was non-seminoma, median 69 vs. 92 months. Concordant histology was present in 58 (38-seminoma) patients and discordant in 38 patients. There were 66, 23, 7 and 84, 9, 3 patients with stage I, II, III disease for first and second testicular cancer (TC), respectively. For all stage I disease, 69% of non-seminoma (n = 33) and 79% of seminoma (n = 81) were on surveillance, of whom the crude relapse rate was 15%. The median follow-up time after second diagnosis was 87 months. In all, 35 patients (30%) with recurrence except 1 were successfully salvaged. The 10-year OS and RFS for whole cohort was 99% and 69.8%, respectively. Conclusions: In our series, seminoma was the more common pathology, and management based on pathology and stage yielded excellent outcomes regardless of prior therapy. Metachronous BTC may occur at extremely long time intervals such that longer follow-up is needed to capture the majority of contralateral primary TC.


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