Germinoma medical therapy

Medical Therapy
Germinomas, like several other types of germ cell tumor, are sensitive to both chemotherapy and radiotherapy. For this reason, with treatment patients' chances of long term survival, even cure, is excellent.

Although chemotherapy can shrink germinomas, it is not generally recommended alone unless there are contraindications to radiation possibly based on a study in the early 1990s where carboplatinum, etoposide and bleomycin were given to 45 germinoma patients. About half the patients relapsed. Most of these relapsed patients were recovered with radiation or additional chemotherapy.