Teratomas. Creating Understanding on the Germ Cell Tumors (PDF)

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2017 in the subject Medicine - Pathology, grade: 1, Egerton University, language: English, abstract: In theory, teratomas are usually germ cell tumors that affect the germ layers. They occur as benign and malignant tumor growths in which some teratomas are highly specialized. This implies that, highly specialized teratomas are located with one germ layer; thus referred to as monodermal teratomas, whereas others occur with two or three germ layers. As such, these teratomas are classified as trigerminal because they can affect any of the three germ layers. For instance, dermoids are a group of teratomas that are recognized as trigerminal because they can occur in any of the germ layers of many tissues.

It is worth noting that teratomas begin as benign swellings and undergo transformation to become malignant. In practice, dermoids have been found to exhibit an orderly arrangement in which endodermal components are surrounded by well-differentiated mesodermal and ectodermal tissues. However, solid teratomas do not exhibit a high degree of cellular organization and differentiation.

Therefore, this paper will provide an overview of teratomas. It will discuss their causes, pathophysiology, clinical diagnosis and treatment, in order to create an overall understanding on these tumors.