Treatment with chemotherapy drug Carboplatin is more effective and produces less toxic side effects compared to radiation therapy for the treatment of testicular cancer.
Professor Tim Oliver and colleagues from The London School of Medicine, UK has reported the results of their study in this week’s issue of The Lancet. 1477 patients with stage 1 seminoma from 70 hospitals in 14 countries were recruited in this study to compare the effect of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Between 1996 and 2001, the researchers randomly assigned 543 patients with stage I seminoma to receive a single course of carboplatin and 904 patients to receive radiation therapy. After a median follow-up of 3years, they found that relapse-free survival was similar between the two groups (95·4% for the carboplatin group vs. 96·6% for radiation therapy). At 5 years they also found that patients receiving carboplatin were less likely to develop tumors in their remaining testicle.Treatment for stage 1 seminoma—a cancer of the testes—has been surgical removal of the cancerous testicle (hemi-castration) followed by three weeks radiotherapy. However, patients treated in this way and followed up for up to 30 years have shown increased risk of cancer in another organ and heart disease that begins after 15 years. Professor Oliver states: “This large randomized trial finally establishes after 20 years of research and uncertainty that it is safe to risk less treatment in these patients. We found that one dose of carboplatin in the short term is as safe as radiation and is less toxic. Patients assigned to chemotherapy also had fewer seminomas occurring in the remaining testis than those receiving radiotherapy. Though needing longer follow up and larger numbers to be sure, this surprising finding, were it to apply to primary tumors when first diagnosed is the first hint that it may now be safe to embark on studies of testis conservation instead of hemicastration.”
(Newswise)
Related information on Testis Medinida:
Undescended Testis: The testis is responsible for sperm production in men. The general body temperature is 36.9o C. But sperm production is best at a temperature 2o less than this level. This is the reason why the testes are located outside the body.
