The role of abdominal surgery in the treatment of advanced testicular germ cell tumours

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Abstract
Twenty patients with advanced testicular teratoma and 1 with advanced seminoma have undergone abdominal surgery for the removal of residual disease following treatment by sequential chemotherapy (1). Fourteen out of the 21 patients (66 per cent) have achieved complete remission with a follow-up period of 6–41 months. In 12 patients (57 per cent) the tumour had undergone histological maturation or necrosis following chemotherapy, those patients in whom the tumour remained histologically active having a worse prognosis. Raised preoperative serum levels of the tumour markers human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) indicating active disease, forecast a particularly poor prognosis, 5 out of 9 such patients (55 per cent) having died. Computerized tomography gave false negative results in 3 patients (14 per cent). Postoperative complications were few, and only 2 patients (9 per cent) suffered with failure of ejaculation. At present our policy is surgical removal of any residual mass after chemotherapy to determine the histology, and, wherever possible, to achieve complete clinical and biochemical remission. Six patients with an apparently poor prognosis have benefited directly from surgery and remain in long term remission. The selection of patients who benefit most from surgery can only be determined by more experience and longer follow up.