A rare process seen in patients with growing tumor or after chemotherapy with normalized serum tumor markers.
Diagnosis is made by 3 criteria: A persistently growing tumor mass or new mass during or after chemotherapy, normalization of tumor markers, and the presence of only mature teratoma in the resected specimen on final histopathological examination.
These lesions lack metastatic capabilities but have aggressive local growth causing compression and infiltration of adjacent organs, producing symptoms.
If left untreated they may become very large.
Surgery is the only potentially curative mode of therapy, as these lesions are unresponsive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Metastatic unresectable disease is incurable.
Disease progression can be associated with significant morbidity, vascular events, pain, ureteral, bowel, or biliary obstruction with secondary organ dysfunction and death.