Surgery and Combination Chemotherapy in Treating Children With Extracranial Germ Cell Tumors

Overview

This phase III trial is studying surgery followed by combination chemotherapy to see how well it works in treating children with germ cell tumors that are not located in the head. Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug, and giving them after surgery, may kill any remaining tumor cells following surgery. It is not yet known whether combination chemotherapy is effective in decreasing the recurrence of childhood germ cell tumors.

OBJECTIVES: I. Determine whether children with newly diagnosed low- or intermediate-risk extracranial germ cell tumors (GCTs) can maintain a 3-year event-free survival of at least 92% (for intermediate-risk tumors only) and overall survival of at least 95% (both low-risk and intermediate-risk tumors) after treatment with surgery followed by compressed cisplatin, etoposide, and bleomycin (low-risk disease closed to accrual as of 01/20/10). II. Determine the percentage of patients with stage I ovarian or stage I testicular GCTs for whom chemotherapy can be eliminated. III. Determine the percentage of intermediate-risk patients who require only 3 courses of therapy. IV. Determine the acute toxic effects of compressed therapy in these patients. V. Determine the long-term sequelae in patients treated with this regimen. VI. Determine the number of hospital days and total drug doses required for patients treated with compressed therapy. VII. Compare the number of protocol-directed treatment days used in CCG-8882 vs the number of treatment days used in this study. VIII. Determine the cytogenetic and molecular genetic features in patients treated with this regimen. OUTLINE: Patients are stratified according to disease risk (low vs intermediate). SURGERY: Patients undergo surgical resection. Low-risk disease: Patients with gonadal primaries and no evidence of disease after surgery undergo monitoring for disease progression. Patients who remain disease free receive no further treatment. Patients who have disease progression after surgery receive compressed induction chemotherapy. (closed to accrual as of 01/20/2010) Intermediate-risk disease: After surgery, patients proceed to compressed induction chemotherapy. COMPRESSED INDUCTION CHEMOTHERAPY: Patients receive cisplatin IV over 90 minutes and etoposide IV over 90 minutes on days 1-3 and bleomycin IV over ≥ 10 minutes on day 1. Treatment repeats every 3 weeks for 3 courses (weeks 0, 3, and 6). After completion of compressed induction chemotherapy, patients who have no change in disease status or disease progression are removed from study. Patients with no evidence of disease receive no further therapy. Patients with a partial response or who have abnormal tumor markers proceed to second-look surgery and/or 3 more courses of compressed consolidation chemotherapy. SECOND-LOOK SURGERY: Patients undergo surgical resection of residual tumor. After surgery, patients who are in pathologic complete response and have normal tumor markers receive no further therapy. Patients who remain with a partial response after surgery receive compressed consolidation chemotherapy. COMPRESSED CONSOLIDATION CHEMOTHERAPY: Patients receive cisplatin, etoposide, and bleomycin as in induction chemotherapy in weeks 10, 13, and 16. Patients are followed up monthly for 6 months, every 3 months for 18 months, and then annually for up to 10 years.