Objectives This study aimed to evaluate the safety of surgery alone followed by surveillance in young women with stage I malignant ovarian germ cell tumor (MOGCT).

Methods A retrospective review was performed on 31 patients with stage I MOGCT who were treated by surgery alone with follow-up.

Results The median patient age was 22 years (range, 6–45 years). The histological type was dysgerminoma in 17, immature teratoma in 11, yolk sac tumor in 1, and mixed MOGCT in 2 cases. Seventeen patients were stage IA, 1 was IB, and 13 were IC. All patients underwent fertility-sparing surgery, which involved either unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy or oophorectomy. Additionally, 12 (38.7%) patients underwent cystectomy of the contralateral ovary, but only 1 patient had MOGCT in the contralateral ovary. Twenty (65%) patients underwent a complete staging operation that included peritoneal exploration, biopsy, cytology, and/or omentectomy or omental biopsy; 7 (22.6%) patients who underwent pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy. After a median follow-up time of 137 months (range, 24–268 months), 7 (22.6%) patients had recurrent disease, and underwent secondary surgery followed by chemotherapy with bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin (BEP). Six (86%) patients were successfully salvaged, but 1 died of disease progression. The 10-year disease-free survival rate was 77%, but the 10-year overall survival rate was 97%.

Conclusions Fertility-sparing surgery alone with surveillance could be a safe treatment strategy. Most recurrence can be successfully salvaged by surgery and BEP chemotherapy and the overall survival is not compromised. Using this strategy, 77.4% of patients may avoid unnecessary BEP chemotherapy.