Acute Leukemia and Concurrent Mediastinal Germ Cell Tumor: Case Report and Literature Review

ABSTRACT

There is a known association of primary nonseminomatous mediastinal germ cell tumors (NSMGCT) and hematologic malignancy in younger males not linked to treatment. When combined these two rare entities convey a very poor prognosis. Here we report a 16-year-old male with an anterior mediastinal mass diagnosed as a malignant germ cell tumor based on elevation of serologic markers. He was found to have acute leukemia with megakaryocytic differentiation several days later. We focus our report on the pathologic findings, including a review of the literature, and a novel molecular analysis of the germ cell tumor.

KEYWORDS:

• Germ cell tumor
• acute leukemia
• megakaryoblastic leukemia
• Klinefelter syndrome
• microarray
• cytogenetics

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.