Dysgerminoma Presenting as a Calcified Abdominal Mass With Hypercalcemia

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Abstract
Several abdominal malignant tumors of childhood have been associated with calcification and/or hypercalcemia. Children with ovarian tumors most frequently present with pain and an abdominal mass. If calcifications are present within these tumors, the most likely diagnoses are dermoid cyst, ovarian teratoma, or gonadoblastoma. Calcification is rarely seen in dysgerminomas, having occurred only once in 105 cases. Hypercalcemia has been associated with various ovarian tumors but has been reported only once in a patient with dysgerminoma. Although no further studies were performed to evaluate the hypercalcemia, the authors postulated that the tumor was secreting a humoral factor. This may have been the cause of the hypercalcemia in this patient who had no skeletal metastases and low PTH [parathyroid hormone] levels. Dysgerminoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of either hypercalcemia or an abdominal calcified mass. The pattern of calcification may be helpful in distinguishing a dysgerminoma from a gonadoblastoma.

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