[Treatment of patients with stage I-II non-seminoma germ-cell tumors of the testis]

Abstract

Stage I--II disease was identified in 71 out of 219 patients with nonseminomatous germ cell tumors of the testis. After orchifuniculectomy, polychemotherapy was given to 30 patients while the rest underwent transperitoneal lymphadenectomy. Long-term survival in the polychemotherapy group was 83.3%, in the lymphadenectomy one--95.1%. After excision of the retroperitoneal lymph nodes, the patients' follow-up should include regular assays of such tumor markers as alpha-fetoprotein and chorionic gonadotropin as well as X-ray examination of the chest for at least the first 24 months. Polychemotherapy should not be administered unless tumor dissemination or an increase in tumor marker levels are detected.