Correlation of vascular invasion and metastasis in germ cell tumors of testis--a preliminary report.

A preliminary study was conducted to correlate vascular invasion with metastasis in testicular tumors. A lectin-immunoperoxidase procedure was used to identify the vessels. Together with standard hematoxylin and eosin staining, the presence of tumor cells in vessels was detected. Primary tumor specimens from 37 cases and retroperitoneal lymph nodes from 10 cases of germ cell tumors were studied. The results showed good correlations between vascular invasion in primary tumors and metastasis to lymph nodes in nonseminomatous germ cell tumors, and between vascular invasion in retroperitoneal lymph nodes and the presence of other metastases. Eight of the 9 nonseminomatous germ cell tumor patients with vascular invasion had metastases, and all 4 patients that had vascular invasion in the lymph nodes had other metastases. However, there seemed to be no correlation between vascular invasion and clinical staging in cases with seminoma in which retroperitoneal lymph node dissection was not performed. These observations, although based on a limited number of cases, warrant more extensive investigations.