Ten-year follow-up in a boy with Leydig cell tumor after selective surgery.

Abstract

In a 4(8)/12-year-old boy with precocious puberty and an enlarged right testis, a Leydig cell tumor was diagnosed. Surgical exploration revealed an encapsulated tumor which was selectively removed without orchiectomy. Within 1 year the signs of precocious puberty disappeared. Ten years later, the patient remained free of disease and had developed normal spontaneous puberty. Despite of highly advanced bone age at the time of diagnosis (13 years according to Greulich and Pyle), his height at age 15 was in the upper normal range and within the familial target height. Most of these prepubertal patients affected by this tumor underwent orchiectomy, although no malignant course of Leydig cell tumors before puberty has been reported. This work provides the first example of long-term follow-up of a prepubertal boy after testis-sparing surgery for a Leydic cell tumor. We conclude that selective removal of the tumor may be the procedure of choice in this entity.