Survival of children with malignant germ cell, trophoblastic and other gonadal tumours in Europe

Collaborators of the EUROCARE study had provided records on 1263 cases of germ cell, trophoblastic and other gonadal neoplasms, registered in 34 cancer registries in 16 European countries over the period 1978--1992 and followed-up until the end of 1994. Observed 5-year actuarial survival for 490 cases diagnosed in 1985-1989 was 80% (95% confidence interval (CI)=(76, 83)). The corresponding figures were calculated for the intracranial and intraspinal germ cell tumours (68%, 95% CI=(57, 76)), other non-gonadal germ cell tumours (76%, 95% CI=(68, 82)), gonadal germ-cell tumours (89%, 95% CI=(85, 93)) and gonadal carcinomas (50%, CI=(24, 76)). Relatively large differences in survival were observed between age-sex subgroups, which also differed with histology, with extremely poor survival of young children with intracranial and intraspinal germ cell tumours. Lower survival was observed in the countries with formerly socialist economies. Time trends in survival were examined for the entire study period, including only the cases registered in the large contributing registries. For all germ cell tumours, the risk ratios calculated in the Cox regression analysis were markedly lowered for the years after the reference period of 1978--1981. The improved outcome is attributed to treatment advances.