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Abstract OBJECTIVE The authors present their experiences of second-look surgery in patients with intracranial GCTs who showed less than complete response despite normalizing or decreasing tumor markers after chemotherapy. METHODS Retrospective review of 14 patients who underwent second-look surgery for an intracranial GCT was performed. RESULTS Of 40 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed intracranial GCTs treated between August 2003 and 2019, 14 patients (35%) underwent second-look surgery. The mean age was 9.2 years. The initial diagnoses were mixed germ cell tumor in 6, immature teratoma in 4, yolk sac tumor in 2, and germinoma 2. Second-look surgery was performed after 1–3 courses of chemotherapy. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at the surgery demonstrated increasing residual tumor in 8 and stable residual tumor in 6. Tumor markers were normalized in 10 and nearly-normalized in 4. Gross total resection was achieved in 12 patients and near-total resection in 2. Histopatholgy at second-look surgery revealed mature teratoma in 6, immature teratoma in 3, fibrosis with atypical cells in 2, and fibrosis in 3. Eleven patients subsequently underwent additional chemo-radiation therapy according to the initial diagnosis. All patients are alive with no evidence of recurrence with a mean follow-up of 69 months. CONCLUSIONS Second-look surgery plays an important role in the treatment of intracranial GCTs. Surgery may be encouraged at a relatively early phase after chemotherapy when the residual tumor increases or does not change the size despite normalized or nearly-normalized tumor markers in order to achieve complete resection and improve the outcome.