[Prevention and early diagnosis of testicular neoplasms]

Aetiology of testicular cancer is still poorly characterized, so the prevention is unlikely to achieve. A fundamental issue is early detection as delay in presentation is a common feature in patients affected by this disease. Moreover there is much evidence suggesting a significant association between delay in diagnosis and clinical stage at presentation particularly for nonseminomas. 176 valuable patients with non seminomatous germ cell tumors of the testis had a clearly identifiable interval from first symptoms until diagnosis; mean delay was 13.9 weeks, and there was a correlation between difference in delay of I clinical stage patients (mean: 10.0 weeks) and III stage patients (mean: 18.6 weeks) ANOVA: p < 0.035. These data suggest that encouraging programmes in order to provide more informations on testicular cancer and testicular self examination (TSE) may contribute to reduce the number of young men requiring toxic treatment and major surgery and even may reduce mortality.