Pituitary Stalk Germ Cell Tumors: Retrospective Case Series and Literature Review

Table 1

Characteristics of the patients.

No.	Patient	Manifestations (month)	Dmax (mm)	Sagittal MRI (mm)			Coronal MRI (mm)			Tumor markers		Diagnosis
				OC	M	PI	OC	M	PI	hCG^a/b mIU/ml	AFP^a/b ng/ml
1	16M	PD/PU and fatigue (6)	6.5	5.3	5.6	3.7	6.5	5.6	5.2	62.1	66.8	iGCT (tumor marker)
2	6M	PD/PU (18)	4.7	3.0	4.4	3.1	3.4	4.7	2.2	0.1	1.25	iGCT (chemotherapy)
3	8M	PD/PU (2)	4.3	2.9	2.2	1.7	4.3	2.2	0.9	0.1	1.22	iGCT (chemotherapy)
4	13M	PD/PU and SS (48)	4.3	3.7	4.0	2.5	2.2	4.3	2.2	0.1	1.82	Germinoma (pathology)
5	13F	PD/PU, DP, and SS (10)	8.6	7.0	6.6	5.0	6.9	8.6	3.4	42.51	1.71	iGCT (tumor marker)
6	9F	PD/PU (12)	4.7	3.6	4.6	3.6	3.8	4.7	3.8	204	1.63	iGCT (tumor marker)
7	5M	PD/PU and fatigue (6)	6.5	4.9	6.5	4.2	1.8	3.6	3.1	11.52	1.71	iGCT (tumor marker)
8	12F	PD/PU and SS (10)	6.6	3.9	4.2	2.3	4.2	6.6	2.8	26.11/26.61	0.605/1.36	iGCT (tumor marker)
9	12M	PD/PU and fatigue (4)	3.9	1.5	3.0	1.9	2.6	3.9	2.6	6.64/22.65	1.55/2.15	iGCT (tumor marker)
10	17F	PD/PU, fatigue, and amenorrhoea (24)	3.4	3.4	1.8	1.1	3.3	1.9	1.4	2.51	1.39	Germinoma (pathology)
11	5M	PD/PU and SS (9)	3.9	3.9	2.8	2.6	3.6	2.7	2.3	14.8/34.72	2.16/2.13	iGCT (tumor marker)

Patient: M, male; F, female; manifestations: PD/PU, polydipsia and polyuria; SS, short stature, DP, delayed puberty; HH, hypogonadotropic hypogonadism; MRI: D_max, maximum diameter of the pituitary; OC, optic chiasma; M, median of the pituitary stalk; PI, pituitary insertion; tumor markers: ^a, tumor markers in serum; ^b, tumor markers in cerebrospinal fluid; hCG. human chorionic gonadotropin; AFP, alpha-fetoprotein; diagnosis: iGCT, intracranial germ cell tumor (without pathological type).