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Symptoms:	If you want to call it this way, the biggest "advantage" of testicular cancer is that it is easy to detect by yourself: Palpate your testicles regularly under the shower or in the tube. The most typical symptom is a swelling or a lump (painful or not). If you have any suspicion at all, go and see a urologist as soon as possible. An absolutely pain- and harmless ultrasound scan is a very quick and reliable way to confirm or rule out the diagnosis. Other (possible) Symptoms: Pain in the groin, or at later stages pain in the back caused by swollen lymph nodes and/or swollen and painful mammary glands.
Consequences:	98% of all testicular cancers are curable (including late stages!). The remaining testicle is taking over the "job" of the one that had to be removed. There is almost no chance of becoming sterile or impotent!!! The missing testicle can be replaced by an artificial one. Testicular cancer is not hereditary or even infectious! After the treatment you should go to cancer prevention regularely. Without any treatment this form of cancer is always leading to death.
Treatment:	The first step is nearly always an operation to remove the diseased testicle. (see below) After that, possibly surviving cancer cells must be destroyed. That is normally done with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy and/or another surgery. The side effects of both radio- and chemotherapy are not as bad as rumored. Nearly all side effects are easy to handle with the latest medicaments. The radiotherapy showed almost no side-effects in my case, a chemotherapy was not necessary. The hair you are loosing in case of a chemotherapy is growing back quickly, many who underwent this treatment even say it comes back denser and stronger than before.
Operation:	Even though it is a rare disease, the operation is pretty much a standard procedure. The incision is not into the scrotum but in the groin, similar to but a bit lower than an appendicitis scar! After the testicle is accessible, it is examined and if it shows a malignant tumor it is taken out. The complete procedure takes less than one hour.
A few Facts:	The risk age group is between 20 and 40 years. Roundabout 7 of 100000 men are getting this form of cancer every year. (In Germany 2900 pa). Prevention: Not possible. Risk Factors: 'Maldescensus testis' (undescended testis) is one known risk factor. In 95% of all cases testicular cancer is only affecting one testicle The most important tumor is the 'Seminoma'. All other are grouped as: 'Non-Seminoma'. Further classification into several histological sub-types exists.
The Hospital:	It is hard to choose the right hospital, because as a layman one is of course not able to check their quality. Just one thing: The food is less important than the medical equipment. So the clinic should not only have good urologists, but also modern computed tomography, a radiotherapy ward and of course the facilities and the experience to perform chemotherapy. So don't look for the nice private hospital, but for a "full service" one. Just in case, your friends or 'call-a-pizza' will deliver you any food you like :-).
Links:	The Lance Armstrong Foundation   Cancer Net   Large testicular cancer link collection to be continued Please suggest sites!	back