Disseminated choriocarcinoma in infancy is curable by chemotherapy and delayed tumour resection

Infantile choriocarcinoma has a poor prognosis with only 2 surviving children reported in the literature. 2 additional successfully treated children ore presented. 2 infants (age 3 and 4 months at diagnosis) suffering from rapidly progressive choriocarcinoma with widespread haematogenous metastases involving the liver were treated according to the: cooperative germ cell tumour treatment protocol (MAKEI 96) of the German Society of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology (GPOH). PEI-chemotherapy (cisplatin, etoposide, ifosfamide, no ifosfamide before the age of 4 months) was combined with delayed tumour resection. Treatment resulted in sustained remission in both children (event-free survival 42 and 40 months). Interphase fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) analysis of the paraffin-embedded tumour sample from case one revealed four to eight copies of chromosomes X, 1 and 17 and two Y chromosomes. Hybridisation with sub-telomere and centromere specific probes for chromosome 1 displayed an imbalance between the short and long arms of chromosome 1. In the tumour cells from case 2, only a polysomy of chromosome X could be proven, other aberrations were not analysed in this case for technical reasons. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.