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4 slides generated from the cancer page, with a quiz from the open benchmark and speaker notes that cite the sources. Arrow keys move between slides; Print gives one slide per page.
Yolk sac tumour is a germ cell tumour whose cells copy the yolk sac of an early embryo and make the protein alpha-fetoprotein, which is measured in the blood to track it. In adults it almost always occurs mixed with other non-seminoma components and is cured with cisplatin chemotherapy; the pure infant form is a different, gentler disease covered on the childhood page.
The 2016 WHO classification splits yolk sac tumour into a postpubertal type, derived from germ cell neoplasia in situ and almost always part of a mixed non-seminoma, and a prepubertal type, unrelated to GCNIS, that is the commonest malignant testicular tumour of infants (Moch 2016). It grows in reticular, microcystic, endodermal sinus (Schiller-Duval body), papillary, glandular, solid and other patterns, secretes alpha-fetoprotein, and stains for glypican-3 and SALL4. Its importance in adults extends beyond the primary: among 124 somatic-type malignancies arising from testicular germ cell tumours, 7 of 45 adenocarcinomas were reclassified as glandular yolk sac tumour on glypican-3 and alpha-fetoprotein positivity, supporting a frequent yolk sac origin of the glandular tumours that appear in late relapse (Am J Surg Pathol 2014). In 33 pure yolk sac tumours of boys aged 5 to 71 months, 24 were disease-free and 8 developed metastases, with size over 4.5 cm, rete or epididymal invasion and necrosis predicting a poor outcome in stage I (Am J Surg Pathol 2015).
How it differs from its parent: it is the alpha-fetoprotein-producing component of non-seminoma, so a raised AFP after treatment signals yolk sac elements; it is the usual source of the chemoresistant glandular late relapses; and its prepubertal type belongs on the childhood germ cell page rather than here.
| Setting | Approach | Guideline |
|---|---|---|
| All stages | Treated as non-seminoma by stage and risk group with BEP and resection of residual masses; late glandular relapses are resected. | not mapped |