Clinical case seminar: Familial intracranial germinoma.

BACKGROUND: Intracranial germinomas (ICG) are uncommon brain neoplasms with extremely rare familial occurance. Since ICG invades hypothalamus and/or pituitary, the endocrine dysfunction is one of the common determinants of these tumors. We presented two brothers with the history of ICG. Patient 1 is a 25-year-old male who had been suffering from the weakness of the right half of his body at the age of 18. Cranial MRI revealed mass lesion in the left thalamus. He underwent neurosurgery, tumor was removed completely. Histopathological (HP) and immunohistochemical analyses verified the diagnosis of pure germinoma. He experienced complete remission of the tumor after a radiation therapy. At the age of 22 the diagnosis of isolated growth hormone deficiency (IGHD) was established and GH replacement was initiated. Patient 2 is a 20-year old boy who was presented with diabetes insipidus at the age of 12. MRI detected tumor in the third ventricle and pineal region. After the endoscopic tumor biopsy the HP diagnosis was pure germinoma. He received chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy, and treated with GH during childhood. At the age of 18 GH replacement was reintroduced. A six month follow-up during the next two years in both brothers demonstrated the IGF1 normalization with no MRI signs of tumor recurrence.

CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge so far, only six reports have been published related to familial ICG. The presented two brothers are the first report of familial ICG case outside of Japan. They are treated successfully with GH therapy in adult period. < /p > < p >.