Treatment options for testicular cancer:
A team of healthcare professionals (multidisciplinary team) will determine your treatment plan. Most people undergo surgery to remove the affected testicle as their initial treatment for testicular cancer. Depending on your situation, you may need additional treatments afterward, such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and possibly another surgery to remove lymph nodes from your abdomen.
If your cancer has spread beyond the testicle, chemotherapy might be your first treatment, followed by surgery to remove the testicle.
Deciding what treatment you need:
A team of doctors and other experts, called a multidisciplinary team, will work together to decide the best treatment and care for you.
Most people are referred to a specialist urology multidisciplinary team, which may be at a different hospital if your local one doesn’t have it.
The team usually includes:
– A specialist surgeon (urologist)
– Cancer experts (oncologists) who focus on treating cancer with drugs (medical oncologist) and radiotherapy (clinical oncologist)
– A specialist cancer nurse (clinical nurse specialist)
– A pathologist who examines any cancer or tissue removed by surgery
– A pharmacist
– A radiologist who reviews your scans and X-rays
Your treatment plan depends on:
– How far the cancer has spread and the levels of specific proteins (markers) in your blood (the stage)
– The type of cancer (seminoma or non-seminoma)
– Your risk factors for the cancer coming back
– Your overall health and fitness
Factors that might affect the risk of the cancer returning include:
– If the cancer has spread into lymph vessels or blood vessels around it (lymphovascular invasion or LVI)
– If the cancer has spread into the small tubes in your testicle (rete testis)
– The size of the cancer
Your doctor will talk to you about your risk of the cancer coming back and discuss further treatments like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or surgery. They will explain the benefits and possible side effects of these treatments.
The Main treatments:
Surgery is typically the first treatment for testicular cancer. After surgery, you might receive:
– Monitoring (surveillance): Regular check-ups to watch for any signs of cancer returning.
– Chemotherapy: Medicine to kill cancer cells.
– Radiotherapy: Treatment using high-energy rays to target and destroy cancer cells.
You might have one of these treatments or a combination of them.
Sperm banking before treatment:
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy can impact your fertility. To help preserve your ability to have children in the future, you can collect and store sperm before starting treatment. This way, you can freeze the sperm and use it later if you choose to.
Your doctor will offer you the option to store 2 or 3 samples of semen (a process known as sperm banking) before your treatment begins.