Testicular Cancer Cure Rates

The American Cancer Society says that about 8,400 new cases of testicular cancer are diagnosed in American men each year. Of those men, 380 will die of this cancer. However, testicular cancer is very treatable and has a high cure rate, especially when it is caught early. With proper diagnosis and treatment, many men will remain cancer free for at least five years, and most will have conquered the cancer for their entire remaining lifespan.

Definition

• Testicular cancer is a type of cancer that affects a man's testes. It usually happens in one testicle, but it can affect both. The American Cancer Society says that this disease happens most often in young men. It usually strikes between the teen years and the 40s or 50s, depending on the type of testicular cancer.

Types

• There are two main types of testicular cancer. The first is seminoma, which develops from a man's sperm-producing cells. The American Cancer Society says that 95 percent of seminoma cancers are of the class type. This type usually strikes men between their late 30s and early 50s. Spermatocytic seminoma is more rare, usually affecting men in their mid-50s.

  The second type of testicular cancer is non-seminoma. The American Cancer Society says it usually occurs in men between their teen years and early 40s. This type of cancer tends to grow more quickly than the seminoma variety. Some men have a mix of both type of cancer cells.

Cure Rate

• The American Cancer Society says that testicular cancer is one of the most curable forms of cancer, even at later stages. Treatment usually involves surgical removal of the affected testicle, which may be combined with chemotherapy or radiation treatment. Overall, a man's risk of dying from this cancer is 1 in 5,000. The survival rate for men whose cancer has not spread beyond the testicle is 99 percent. When the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, the cure rate is still 96 percent. It drops to 71 percent if the cancer has moved to other areas of the body.

Recurrence

• When testicular cancer recurs in a man who has been previously treated, his cure rate for the new cancer is just as high as it was for the first illness. A study by the National Cancer Institute showed that men who were diagnosed with a new case of testicular cancer after previous successful treatment had the same cure rate as men with first-time testicular cancer.

Warning

• According to Science Daily, high testicular cancer cure rates mean that some survivors are suffering long-term effects from their treatment. Common testicular cancer treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy can cause other health problems 12 to 15 years or more after treatment. Researchers at the West German Cancer Center at the University of Essen found that many men who had been treated with a particular type of chemotherapy had heart abnormalities, high cholesterol and low testosterone. Some also had nerve damage. Although none of them had a testicular cancer relapse, the other health problems put them at risk for conditions such as heart attacks. A study at the Norwegian Radium Hospital showed that radiation may cause long-term renal damage.