Retrospective and Prospective Study of Germ Cell Tumors of the Ovary in Young and Adolescent Girls

Objective in this retrospective and prospective study was to find out the incidence of various germ cell tumors of the ovary up to 20 years of the age in the last 10 years, and to correlate clinical and pathological findings for better outcome.

Forty Two cases of ovarian germ cell tumors were studied from 2000 to 2010.Clinical data and histopathological findings were recorded.

On analysis of these forty two cases, mature teratoma (57%) was the most common benign tumor and dysgerminoma (31%) was the commonest malignant tumor. Majority of the tumors were in the age group of 10-20 years.

Ovarian germ cell tumors are uncommon but in children and adolescent, more than 60% of ovarian neoplasms are of germ cell origin and one third are malignant. Clinical stage of the neoplasm is one of the important prognostic factors. So, early diagnosis is necessary for the better and timely management in terms of preservation of reproductive life and 5 years survival rate in cases of malignant tumors.