[A review of the cases of testicular tumors reported in the Annual of Pathological Autopsy Cases in Japan].

A review was made on 1,437 cases of testicular malignancies reported in the Annual of the Pathological Autopsy Cases in Japan between 1967 and 1976. They were 417 cases of germinal testicular cancer and 1,027 cases of secondary tumors, the ratio between the two being 1:2.46. The primary disease of 966 cases of secondary tumors was known: It was leukemia in 541 cases (56%), cancer in 188 cases (19.4%) and lymphosarcoma in 184 cases (19.0%), in decreasing order of frequency. The histological classification of the 410 germinal cell carcinoma given clear description was type I, II, III, IV and V according to Dixon and Moore's classification in 34.4%, 38.5%, 3.7%, 10.2% and 13.2%, respectively. There were 369 cases consisting of only one histological type, which was seminoma, embryonal carcinoma, teratoma, teratocarcinoma and choriocarcinoma in 38.2%, 39.0%, 3.8% 10.0% and 9.0% of these cases, respectively. The pattern of metastasis was analyzed for these 369 cases. There was no significant difference in the pattern of lymph node metastasis between the 5 groups, but there was a slight difference between seminoma and embryonal carcinoma. There was a significant difference in the pattern of distant metastasis between the 5 groups and between choriocarcinoma and seminoma, choriocarcinoma and embryonal carcinoma, and, choriocarcinoma and teratocarcinoma. It is questionable whether the findings at autopsy directly relate to prognosis, but considering from the pattern of metastasis at autopsy, the adult germinal cell testicular tumors can be divided into the three groups: seminoma, choriocarcinoma and embryonal carcinoma + teratocarcinoma + teratoma.