Testicular Cancer
What Is It?
About 1,800 men were diagnosed in the UK in 2003. Testicular cancer is not that common. Out of every 1,000 cancers diagnosed in men, only 14 are testicular cancers. But it is the commonest cancer affecting young men between 20 and 39 years old. Treatment for testicular cancer is very effective and the vast majority of patients are cured.Symptoms
The most common symptom of a testicular cancer is a lump or swelling in part of one testicle.Remember - most testicular lumps are NOT cancer. At a testicular clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, only 76 cancers were found out of 2,000 men seen with a testicular lump. A lump that is cancer can be as small as a pea, or may be much larger. It is not usually painful, but some men have a dull ache in:
The affected testicle
Their lower abdomen
Your scrotum may feel heavy
Your GP may shine a strong light through your testicle. If you have a fluid
filled cyst (called a hydrocoele) rather than a cancer, the light will show
through. A cancer is a solid lump and the light can't pass through it.
Sometimes testicular cancer cells can spread into lymph glands at the back of
the abdomen. This can cause backache. Your doctor may call these lymph glands
the para-aortic or retro-peritoneal lymph glands. Sometimes testicular cancer
spreads into lymph glands lower down - the pelvic lymph glands.
Testicular cancer can usually be cured, even if it has spread when it is
diagnosed.
Treatment
The main treatments used are:Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are all used to treat cancer of the testicles. You may have just one treatment or a combination. The doctor plans your treatment by taking into account:
The types of cells the tumour is made up of (teratoma or seminoma)
Whether the cancer has spread beyond the testicle
Recently there's been a lot of progress in treatment for testicular cancer.
Most men are completely cured even if the disease has spread beyond the
testicles when it is diagnosed.