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Hellenic Archives of Pathology, Volume 19, Issues 1-3, 2005
Molecular genetics of testicular germ cell tumors
Dr Andreas C. Lazaris
1st Department of Pathology, School of Medicine,
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Testicular germ-cell tumors (TGCTs) are pluripotent and show various histologic features ranging from the germ-cell stage until initial and somatic-cell differentiation. An initial precursor stage, intrabubular germ cell neoplasia (IGCN) is characterized by triploidization and an upregulation of KIT, ALPP, CCDN2 and ZNF354A, and a downregulation of CDKN2D. Macroscopically overt TGCTs are linked with a characteristic series of abnormalities in the retinoblastoma pathway including upregulation of cyclin D2 and p27 and downregulation of RB1 and the cyclindependent kinase inhibitors p16, p18, p19 and p21. TGCTs thus have a synergistic pattern in gene expressions of the retinoblastoma pathway that is uncommon in other malignant tumors.
Key words: Testicular germ cell tumors, molecular genetics.
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