Novel Therapies in Platinum-refractory Metastatic Germ Cell Tumor: A Case Report with a Focus on a PD-1 Inhibitor

Testicular germ cell tumor (GCT) is the most common malignancy in young males between the ages of 15 to 35 years. Although the overall cure rate of GCTs approaches 95%, almost 25% of patients with distant metastases die from the cancer. Active investigations on novel treatment options for platinum-refractory GCTs include immunotherapies such as program-death 1 (PD-1)/program death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors. In this case, we report a patient with metastatic GCTs who was treated with pembrolizumab, a PD-L1 inhibitor, in a phase II study after failing several lines of chemotherapy. We highlighted the rationale for the use of PD-L1 inhibitor in this population.