BACKGROUND: Malignant germ cell @entity5 of the ovary occurs in up to 0.07% of @entity1 globally. Due to its rarity, evidence for treatment is lacking and often extrapolates clinical trial results of @entity5 . The investigation on this rare @entity5 is further compounded by the fact that its occurrence in the adult population is even less compared to their paediatric counterpart. At present, the effectiveness of chemotherapy, regardless of stage in @entity5 of the ovary is not entirely clear. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of chemotherapy in adult @entity1 with early stage, advanced and recurrent @entity43 . SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Issue 1, 2010, Cochrane Gynaecological Cancer Group Trials Register, MEDLINE and EMBASE up to April 2010. We also searched registers of clinical trials, abstracts of scientific meetings and reference lists of included studies. SELECTION CRITERIA: We searched for randomised controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-RCTs and non-randomised studies that compared systemic therapy in adult @entity1 diagnosed with @entity43 who have confirmed pathological diagnoses. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently assessed whether potentially relevant studies met the inclusion criteria, abstracted data and assessed risk of bias. MAIN RESULTS: We found one RCT and one retrospective study that met our inclusion criteria. The data from these studies were too sparse to adequately assess the effectiveness and safety of adjuvant chemotherapy in the treatment of @entity43 . All comparisons were restricted to single study analyses and this review was only based on 32 @entity1 , so it was not adequately powered to detect differences in survival. Adverse effects of treatment and recurrence-free survival were incompletely documented and QoL was not reported in any of the studies. We did not find any studies that reported specifically on adults so there were problems in separating data on adults and @entity1 in many of the potentially relevant studies. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: We found only low quality evidence on the use of chemotherapy in @entity5 of the ovaries. Therefore we are unable to reach definite conclusions about the relative benefits and harms of chemotherapy use in this disease regardless of disease stage. Due to the benefit of chemotherapy in germ cell @entity5 , a trial of chemotherapy versus best supportive care is unlikely to be feasible. Despite this, good quality randomised studies are warranted in this disease to define the role of chemotherapy (type of chemotherapy, duration of treatment, benefit, short and long term @entity137 ). Given the rarity of this disease, we feel a trans-global approach would be essential in order to perform such trials.

Chemotherapy for XXXX in adult @entity1 with early stage, advanced and recurrent disease.

@entity5 :: ('MESH:D009369', 'Disease') :: ['malignant germ cell tumour', 'malignant germ cell tumours', 'cancer of the testis', 'testicular germ cell cancers', 'tumour'] @entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['women', 'children', 'woman'] @entity43 :: ('MESH:D010051', 'Disease') :: ['malignant germ cell ovarian cancer', 'malignant germ cell ovarian cancers', 'germ cell ovarian cancer'] @entity137 :: ('MESH:D064420', 'Disease') :: ['toxicities']
@entity43 :: (MESH:D010051,Disease) :: ['malignant germ cell ovarian cancer']
