Extragonadal germ-cell tumor: a rare differential diagnosis of a cervical lump in a young man.

In this case report, we discuss the potential diagnostic difficulty of identifying the cause or origin of a cervical swelling, a clinical situation often encountered in otolaryngology patients. A 30-year-old man came to us with a painless left cervical lump that he had noticed 8 weeks earlier. A series of examinations--including various biopsies, computed tomography, and extensive staging procedures--could not establish the diagnosis. We eventually identified the mass as an extragonadal germ-cell tumor. The diagnosis was established only after additional serologic testing and detection of tumor markers specific for extragonadal germ-cell tumor.