Radiologic staging of chest in testicular seminoma

We investigated the usefulness of chest x-ray (CXR), conventional planar tomography (TOM), and computerized axial tomography (CAT) in evaluating patients with Stages I and II testicular seminoma. All patients had a CXR, and 22 patients had either TOM or CAT as part of initial staging. No occult pulmonary or mediastinal nodal disease was found during initial staging, and none of the patients manifested recurrence of tumor in these sites as a first event. Review of the literature corroborates our finding of a very small thoracic failure rate in early stage seminoma. Routine use of CAT or TOM is not indicated in staging these patients.