A 10-year retrospective study of the risks and peculiarities in pediatric patients with (para)gonadal tumors and cysts

Abstract

Introduction: Gonadal pediatric tumors are rare, ranking fourth (6%) among pediatric tumors, by Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (https://seer.cancer.gov/). They have vague symptoms, leading to late discovery, but early detection and identifying its risk factors result in favorable prognosis and reduction of its incidence respectively. Patients, Material and Methods: A 10-year retrospective study identified peculiarities and risk factors in 210 children till age 17 with (para)gonadal tumors. Results: Stress, pollution (agricultural chemicals, insecticides and metal mine), obesity, breastfeeding ≤5 months, malformations [mainly non-genetic related 67/87 (77%), especially eye malformation – 64%], hormone, smoking, positive heredo-genetic history, rural residence area, abnormal birth weight, and menstruation disorders showed an increased gonadal malignancy risk; relative risk ratio (RR): 1.33, 1.30, 1.34, 1.11, 1.65, 1.16, 1.36, 1.10, 1.00, 1.08 and 1.15 folds, respectively. RR for histopathological subtypes: immature teratoma (IT) (pollution – 1.75, Rhesus positive – 3.41), dysgerminoma (menstruation disorders – 2.80), granulosa cell tumor (stress – 2.10, menstruation disorders – 2.80), mucinous cystadenomas (obesity – 2.84, no postnatal vaccine – 3.71), mature teratomas (stress – 2.35, malformations – 2.18) and serous cystadenomas (breastfeeding ≤5 months – 2.53), dependent variables being mixed germ cell tumors (GCTs) and cysts. Children presenting with bleeding (73%), abdominal distention (62%), elevated tumor markers (91%), (multilocular) solid tumor (88% and 100%), tumor size >10 cm (65%), GCTs (74%), death (100%), metastases (100%), viruses (77%), loss of appetite (68%), and weight (85%), had gonadal malignant tumors, especially mixed GCTs and IT. Conclusions: Avoiding these risk factors will prevent and reduce gonadal pediatric tumors. Investigating children presenting with the listed peculiarities, especially if exposed to the mentioned risk factors, will enable early gonadal tumor identification, successful patient management, and favorable prognosis.