Even metastatic testicular cancer curable

VietNamNet Bridge – Doctors at the Ha Noi Medical University Hospital have successfully removed a large tumor from a man’s testicles.

Dr Nguyen Nhu Vinh (left) conducts a health check-up for a patient at the Medical University Hospital in HCM City. – Photo laodong.vn

According to Dr Nguyen Dình Lien at Surgery Department, the 51-year-old patient was hospitalised with symptoms of lower abdomen pain and difficulty defecating for about two months.

After a medical check, doctors detected that a tumor as large as an ostrich egg was hidden in the left side of the patient’s abdomen, Nong thon ngay nay (Countryside Today) newspaper reported.

He was diagnosed with testicular cancer after a scan, Dr Lien said.

The remote mountainous patient said that he has not had a left testicle since he was a child. He has good health, so he did not consider it a problem. He also married and has two children.

Recently, he experienced abdomen pain and was very surprised when doctors said he had testicular cancer.

On December 29, the Medical University Hospital in HCM City also received a patient with a case of testicular cancer. The patient is very young, just 25 years old.

He was hospitalized after experiencing a prolonged cough.

A medical examination showed he had lung cancer that had metastasized from testicular cancer.

Previously, the patient had pain in his right testicle but it stopped. At a health check, doctors found a hard tumor, but the patient was no longer in pain so he did not have any further checks.

This caused the tumor to grow and spread to other organs, Dr Nguyen Nhu Vinh said.

According to Dr Lien, testicular cancer is a rare disease, accounting for about 1 per cent of cancers in men. However, this is the cancer that has the highest incidence in men aged 25-35.

Approximately 7,100 new cases have been diagnosed in the United States every year, and about 400 deaths have occurred annually.

People with hidden testicles are more likely to have cancer.

“Eighty to 85 per cent of people with hidden testicles have testicular cancer. Other factors that cause that disease are history of mumps, manifestations of lymphatic spread or inguinal hernia,” said Lien.

Testicular cancers are very sensitive to chemotherapy and are curable even when metastatic. Cure rates for good-risk disease are 90-95 per cent. However, patients cured of testicular cancer have approximately a 2 per cent cumulative risk of developing a cancer in the opposite testicle during the 15 years after the initial diagnosis.

Ultrasound can help to accurately diagnose early testicular tumors.

Before surgery, the sperm could be kept and stored in sperm banks if patients want to have children, he said.

In order to prevent this disease, Lien recommended men should have periodic health examinations and go see a doctor if they detect any abnormal signs. 

Source: VNS