Oncological Outcomes in Japanese Men Undergoing Orchiectomy for Stage I Testicular Germ Cell Tumor

The objective of this study was to retrospectively review oncological outcomes in patients with stage I testicular germ cell tumor (GCT).

This study included 265 consecutive Japanese men undergoing orchiectomy for stage I testicular GCT, and a retrospective review of their records was performed.

Of these 265 patients, 192 and 73 were pathologically classified with seminoma and nonseminoma, respectively. Prophylactic radiation and chemotherapy were performed in 62 patients with seminoma and 6 with nonseminoma, respectively. Disease recurrence occurred in 12 seminoma patients, of whom 11 had not received prophylactic radiation therapy; however, all 12 achieved a complete response to bleomycin, etoposide and cisplatin therapy. Of the nonseminoma patients, 19 experienced disease recurrence and were then treated with bleomycin, etoposide and cisplatin followed additionally by the surgical resection of residual tumors and salvage chemotherapy in 7 and 4, respectively. There was no cancer-specific death in the 265 patients, and 5-year recurrence-free survival rates in patients with seminoma and nonseminoma were 92.6 and 72.8%, respectively. Furthermore, following factors appeared to be significantly associated with recurrence-free survival in these patients: age, T classification, microvascular invasion and adjuvant therapy for those with seminoma, and microvascular invasion for those with nonseminoma.

Despite a generally favorable prognosis in Japanese men with stage I testicular GCT, intensive follow-up or prophylactic therapy should be considered for men with possible risk factors of disease recurrence.