While standard protocols have been established for the treatment of virtually all cancers, physicians will often modify them for their individual patients. These modifications are based on many factors including the patient’s age, general health, desired results, and the specific characteristics of his or her cancer. Since the treatments described in this report represent the standard therapeutic approaches, your physician may not strictly adhere to them.

Testicular cancer is one of the most treatable cancers—more than 90% of all cases can be cured.

As with any cancer, cure is most readily and reliably obtained when every cancer cell has been eliminated. Because testicular cancer is most often found at an early stage (because men report problems with their testicles quite readily to their doctors), cure is the most common result.

Orchiectomy (surgical removal of the diseased testicle) is the mainstay of treatment, both to diagnose accurately and to cure. Following that, radiation therapy is usually recommended for seminomas that have spread or are suspected to have spread to lymph nodes in the abdomen or pelvis.

If an early stage non-seminoma is found, sometimes you will simply be followed very closely with no further treatment. However, if a non-seminoma is found to invade surrounding tissues, extensive further surgery (a retroperitoneal lymph node dissection) is usually recommended to remove lymph nodes, since non-seminomas do not respond well to radiation therapy. Chemotherapy is recommended for more advanced stages of seminomas and non-seminomas.

Some forms of treatment may affect your fertility. If you would like to be able to have children after treatment, talk to your doctor about your options. You may want to have your semen frozen for possible future use.

Select a topic below for a thorough discussion of each testicular cancer treatment option:
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Existing treatment protocols have been established and continue to be modified through clinical trials. These research studies are essential to determine whether or not new treatments are both safe and effective. Since highly effective treatments for many cancers remain unknown, numerous clinical trials are always underway around the world. You may wish to ask your doctor if you should consider participating in a clinical trial. You can find out about clinical trials at the government website ClinicalTrials.gov .