Ninety-one patients with poor prognosis non-seminomatous germ cell tumours (NSGCT) were treated with an initial intensive chemotherapy schedule. Suitable patients fulfilled one or more of the following criteria: lymph node metastases greater than 10 cm diameter; liver, brain or bone metastases; serum HCG level greater than 50,000 IU/L; and extragonadal primary tumours. Treatment consisted of 3 cycles of bleomycin, vincristine and cisplatin (BOP) administered at 10 day intervals, followed by 3 cycles of etoposide, ifosfamide and cisplatin (VIP) at 21 day intervals. A total of 64 patients (70%) achieved a complete remission. This comprised 46 patients who received BOP/VIP only, and 18 patients who received additional chemotherapy after BOP/VIP. Of these 64 patients, 51 underwent complete surgical resection of residual masses, including 11 in whom there was evidence of teratoma with cellular atypia or non-germ cell cancer in the resected tissue. A further 9 patients had persisting unresected radiological masses in the presence of marker complete remission. The overall response rate was 80%. Currently 57 patients (63%) remain alive and free from disease progression. The median follow-up period is 90 weeks (range 24-206 weeks), with a 2 yr actuarial progression-free survival of 66% (95% c.i. 55-77%). Major toxicity was myelosuppression, occurring during the VIP arm of therapy, with a median nadir WBC of 1.1 x 10(9)/L and median platelet count of 51 x 10(9)/L. Other toxicity included peripheral neuropathy (WHO Grade 2 and 3 in 22%). We conclude that treatment results with the BOP/VIP schedule in this poor prognosis patient group are at least comparable with other schedules, and toxicity is manageable.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)