Wnt signalling in childhood germ cell tumors – dysregulation of extracellular Wnt inhibitors as a reason for tumor progression?

Introduction: Childhood germ cell tumors (GCT) constitute a heterogenous group of tumors and occur in the gonads and at extragonadal midline sites. They can be divided into different histological subtypes such as mature and immature teratomas (TER), malignant yolk sac tumor (YST) and seminomatous GCT (sGCT). Aberrant Wnt signalling is thought to contribute to the development of numerous embryonal tumors as well as a variety of carcinomas. Nuclear translocation and accumulation as well as increased expression of ß-Catenin in YST are evidence of its activation also in GCT. Therefore, we here investigate gene expre…