Early-stage testis cancer.

Abstract

The treatment of low-stage testis cancer (defined as clinical stage I or low-volume clinical stage II disease) varies, depending on whether or not the orchiectomy specimen reveals seminoma or nonseminoma. Treatments for clinical stage I seminoma include radiotherapy to the retroperitoneum, surveillance, or two courses of carboplatin chemotherapy. Until the results of an ongoing randomized study comparing radiotherapy with two courses of carboplatin are known, standard accepted treatments currently include radiotherapy or surveillance. In nonbulky clinical stage II seminoma, therapeutic options include radiotherapy or cisplatin-based chemotherapy. For clinical stage I nonseminoma, equivalent short-term survival rates are obtained with either nerve-sparing retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND), surveillance, or two courses of BEP (bleomycin, etoposide, and platinum) chemotherapy. However, minimization of toxicity of treatment would argue that the two preferred treatments in clinical stage I nonseminoma are nerve-sparing RPLND or surveillance. For low- volume clinical stage II nonseminoma, options include three courses of BEP or primary RPLND. The overall chance for cure is essentially the same for either of these options. Therefore, in each clinical stage of early-stage testis cancer, therapeutic options exist that, based upon current data, are therapeutically equivalent in the short term. Therefore, the ultimate choice of therapy is also dependent upon the short- and long-term toxicity of therapy and the likelihood of late recurrence of disease.