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National survey of patterns of care for testis cancer
Author(s) -
Kennedy B. J.,
Schmidt Joseph D.,
Winchester David P.,
Peace Barbara L.,
Natarajan Natchimuthu,
Mettlin Curtis
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19871015)60:8<1921::aid-cncr2820600842>3.0.co;2-d
Subject(s) - medicine , seminoma , stage (stratigraphy) , testicular cancer , cancer , disease , germ cell tumors , chemotherapy , oncology , paleontology , biology
A national survey of testicular cancer documented recent trends in disease characteristics, treatment, and outcome, providing a basis for progress being achieved on a community basis. A long‐term study of 3285 patients diagnosed between 1970 and 1975 was compared with a short‐term study of 1887 patients diagnosed in 1983. An increase of the symptom of a lump in the testis from 23.1% to 31.2% and a mass as a sign of cancer from 44.5% to 53.8% suggests earlier detection of testis cancer by the patient and physician. Changes in the methods of diagnosis reflect the changing technology of tumor diagnosis. The 10‐year survival rates for pathologic Stage I seminoma (82.6% of all seminomas) exceeded 96%. For pathologic Stage I nonseminomatous germ cell tumors (51.7% of all NSGCT), 10‐year survival was 87.1%; whereas for Stage III (18.7% of all NSGCT) it was 22.1%. The impact of the important advances in chemotherapy is reflected in the increase of 1‐year survival of Stage III NSGCT from 50.5% to 78.4%. Testis cancer can be cured in most patients.