[Clinical studies of testicular tumor. II. Analysis of 30 patients with nonseminomatous testicular tumor]

Abstract

Clinical findings and results of various treatments were discussed for 30 patients with nonseminomatous testicular tumor (NSTT) who had been treated from August, 1968 to March, 1985. Radioimmunoassays were positive for AFP in 19 of the 22 evaluated patients (86.4%) and were positive in 14 of the 19 evaluated patients (73.7%). These positive rates are consistent with those reported by others. Abnormal pre-treatment level of hCG-beta did not always indicate poor clinical courses, since in patients under stage III A pre-treatment level of hCG-beta did not correlate to either treatment results or clinical courses, even in patients with bulky metastasis such as stage IIIB1, B2 or C their treatment results and clinical courses seemed to be primarily determined by the size and extent of metastasis. However, pre-treatment measurement of hCG-beta was useful to predict in primary and/or metastatic tumor the presence of choriocarcinoma element which could not be found with conventional histopathological studies. Most of our 14 patients at stage I were subjected to radical orchiectomy and retroperitoneal lymph node dissection followed by post-surgical management with radiotherapy or chemotherapy. With these treatments only one of the stage I patients had a recurrence. However, adjuvant therapy may not be necessary for them because of a low recurrence rate following retroperitoneal lymph node dissection and the high cure rate with intensive chemotherapy including CDDP for the early stage of recurrence, when a close follow-up would be possible. We treated only 2 patients at stage II A. One of these 2 patients became free of the disease by intensive chemotherapy including CDDP (24 months after the start of treatment). In stage II A, a high recurrence rate has been reported, following retroperitoneal lymph node dissection without post-surgical adjuvant chemotherapy, which indicates that these patients should be treated with adjuvant chemotherapy, including CDDP. All 4 patients in stage II B or III treated mainly by chemotherapy without CDDP died of the disease at around one year after treatment. However, the five-year survival rate was improved to 40% in 10 advanced patients with these stages who had been treated mainly with recent chemotherapy regimen including CDDP. The recent development of chemotherapy regimen including CDDP has been able to lead many patients with advanced stage to a curable status. However, the appropriate treatment for some patients with bulky and extensive metastasis remains to be established. More aggressive treatment such as cytoreductive surgery may be necessary for such patients.