A rare case report and literatures review on primary germinoma in cerebellar hemisphere.

OBJECT: Primary intracranial germinoma is a rare intracranial lesion which accounts for approximately 0.5-2% of all intracranial tumors. Generally, primary intracranial germinoma occurs in the midline structures of the central nervous system of a pediatric patient. Only four cases of primary cerebellar germinomas with poor prognosis have been previously reported. The object of this paper is to introduce a case of germinoma originating from cerebellar hemisphere and to discuss its clinical features.

METHODS: This paper reported an 8-year-old boy who was diagnosed to have cerebella inflammatory granuloma during hospitalization and then discharged without any operation. However, the follow-up MRs revealed that the lesion became larger. Therefore, the boy was hospitalized again and underwent a gross total resection of lesion. According to pathological examination, the final diagnosis was confirmed as germinoma.

RESULTS: Chemo- and radiotherapy were followed and so far, the patient showed good recovery without any recurrence and metastasis.

CONCLUSION: Primary cerebellar germinoma has been rarely described in previous literatures. In this paper, a primary cerebellar germinoma was reported and its clinical features and treatments were discussed. The tumor's significant shrinkage by CT- scan was firstly reported and maybe this would provide a valuable hint for the diagnosis and treatment on the intracranial germinomas in children.