Primary mediastinal nonseminomatous germ cell tumors (PMNSGCT) frequently become refractory to chemotherapy, and no effective salvage therapy exists. We performed genomic profiling on a series of 44 PMNSGCT and compared the results with those from chemorefractory, metastatic pure seminomatous (Sem, n = 22) and nonseminomatous (NS, n = 86) testicular germ cell tumors. Archival tissues were sequenced by a hybrid capture-based technology (FoundationONE; Foundation Medicine, Inc., Cambridge, MA). Microsatellite instability (MSI) and tumor mutational burden (TMB, mutations [mut]/Mb) were determined.Statistically significant differences in genomic alterations (GA) of PMNSGCT versus NS included higher TP53 pathway GA (p < .0001), PIK3CA pathway GA (p < .0001), and lower cell-cycle pathway GA (p = .0004). There were no MSI-high PMNSGCT cases. Mean TMB was similar between the groups, but there were more ≥10 mut/Mb in the PMNSGCT group versus NS (11.4% vs. 4.6%).The GA identified in PMNSGCT were similar to the findings from NS, with differential opportunities for targeted therapies and immunotherapies. Further study of precision treatments appears warranted.
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