Oncology and reproductive outcomes over 16 years of malignant ovarian germ cell tumors treated by fertility sparing surgery

BACKGROUNDMalignant ovarian germ cell tumors (MOGCT) are rare and frequently occur in women of young and reproductive age and the oncologic and reproductive outcomes after fertility-sparing surgery (FSS) for this disease are still limited.AIMTo evaluate the oncology and reproductive outcomes of MOGCT patients who underwent FSS.METHODSAll MOGCT patients who underwent FSS defined as the operation with a preserved uterus and at least one side of the ovary at our institute between January 2005 and December 2020 were retrospectively reviewed.RESULTSSixty-two patients were recruited for this study. The median age was 22 years old and over 77% were nulliparous. The three most common histology findings were immature teratoma (32.2%), dysgerminoma (24.2%), and yolk sac tumor (24.2%). The distribution of stage was as follows; Stage I, 74.8%; stage II, 9.7%; stage III, 11.3%; and stage IV, 4.8%. Forty-three (67.7%) patients received adjuvant chemotherapy. With a median follow-up time of 96.3 mo, the 10-year progression-free survival and overall survival were 82.4% and 91%, respectively. For reproductive outcomes, of 43 patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy, 18 (41.9%) had normal menstruation, and 17 (39.5%) resumed menstruation with a median time of 4 mo. Of about 14 patients who desired to conceive, four were pregnant and delivered good outcomes. Only one case was aborted. Therefore, the successful pregnancy rate was 28.6%CONCLUSIONThe oncology and reproductive outcomes of MOGCT treated by FSS are excellent. Many patients show a long survival time with normal menstruation. However, the obstetric outcome is not quite satisfactory.