Clinical presentation features of testicular cancer in public hospitals in the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Spain

Abstract

ObjectiveTo study the clinical features of the patients with germ cell tumor of testis in the Autonomous Community of Madrid, emphasizing on the different treatments used. Material and methodRetrospective analysis of 536 patients with testicular cancer who were obtained from the Community of Madrid cancer registry, during a follow-up period of 15 years (1991–2010). Data analysis has been performed using SPSS 15.0 for Windows. Chi-square test has been used to determine possible relationships among variables. The level of significance was p≤0.05. ResultsAn increase in the incidence rate has been detected along study period. Mean age was 33.6±13.6 years. 89.7% of cases were germ cells tumors (46% seminoma and 43.6% nonseminomatous germ cell tumor [NSGCT]) and other histologic subtypes the remaining 10.3% of cases. 74% of patients were diagnosed with stage I disease, 8.2% with stage II and 16.2% with stage III; 54.3% of patients were treated with surgery plus adjuvant chemotherapy and in 5.6% of patients the treatment was surgery plus adjuvant radiotherapy. Surgery alone was used in 27.4% of cases: in 32.7% of stage I tumors, 13.6% of stage II and 9.2% of stage III. Radiotherapy was prescribed in 10% of stage I tumors, in 9% of stage II and in 3.4% of stage III. For the seminomas: the surgery-chemotherapy association was used in 49.8 of cases, surgery alone in 30% and surgery plus radiotherapy in 16.6% of cases. For the NSGCT, surgery plus chemotherapy was used in 70.5% of patients, surgery alone in 23.5% and surgery-radiotherapy association in 0.8% of cases. ConclusionTesticular cancer incidence is increasing. Adjuvant chemotherapy is the treatment used most frequently in the more advanced stages of both seminomas and NSGCT. The tendency to reduce the use of radiotherapy in the treatment of seminoma was confirmed.