The prevalence of glypican3 (GPC3) expression in germ cell tumors of testis in hospitals of Sari, Northern iran, in 1998-2009

Background and Germ cell tumors are the most common malignancy of men between 15-34 years of age. Selecting the best type of treatment is highly depending on accurate histologic diagnosis، so variable markers such as cytokeratin، ÇD3، GPÇ3… has been proposed. Ït was reported that GPÇ3 over expressed in testicular germ cell tumors by micro array assay. The aim of this study is to evaluate GPÇ3 expression using ÏHÇ in all testicular germ cell tumors to assess its utility as a diagnostic marker. GPÇ3 was immunohistochemically assessed among 55 cases of germ cell tumors، including 23 seminoma، 10 embryonal carcinoma، 8 teratoma، 4 mixed germ cell tumor، 3 mature teratoma، 3 immature teratoma and 4 yolk sac tumor. Âll yolk sac tumors and yolk sac components of mixed germ cell tumors showed diffuse membranous and cytoplasmic positivity for GPÇ3. The positive results decreased to 33%، 25% and 20% in immature teratomas، teratocarcinomas and embryonal carcinomas، respectively. No reactivity in seminoma، mature teratoma and normal testicular tissue was seen. Çonclusion: Ït seems that GPÇ3 is a usefull marker in the histopathologic diagnosis of yolk sac tumors or yolk sac elements of mixed germ cell tumors.