SEMINOMA OF THE TESTIS

¹ Associate Professor and Senior Attending Physician, Rush Medical College and Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, Chicago; and Associate Professor and Director, Department of Radiotherapy, Mount Sinai Hospital, and Chicago Medical School, Chicago.

During the period of 1947 to 1969, 77 patients with pure seminoma of their testes were seen at Brooke General Hospital, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

Most of the patients were younger than reported by other authors.

The right and left testis was involved with almost equal frequency.

All of our patients except 2 had a Stage I disease. Orchiectomy on the affected side was the method of biopsy routinely in all patients.

In this series no difference was noted in the survival rates of the patients who have had different kinds of treatments such as: retroperitoneal lymph node dissection and irradiation; irradiation to the abdominal paraaortic lymph nodes; and irradiation only of the abdominal paraaortic, mediastinal, and left supraclavicular regions.

The retroperitoneal lymph node dissection in pure seminoma of the testis has no role in its management.

There are also enough reasons to believe that routine irradiation of the mediastinum and the left supraclavicular region in a Stage I seminoma of the testis is not warranted.

It is suggested that a great effort should be made to stage these patients with pure seminoma before any definite treatment is started. In a truly Stage I disease the cure rate should be close to 100 per cent, if managed adequately.

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