Status of chemotherapy for testis cancer

Significant advances have been made in the treatment of advanced testicular cancer. These advances have been centered on better staging techniques with procedures such as computed tomography as well as the development of reliable serum markers. Based on these techniques, patients can be directed toward primary surgical therapy or systemic therapy. Cisplatin combination chemotherapy can be expected to cure approximately 80 per cent of all patients with advanced disease. Currently, cisplatin plus etoposide plus bleomycin is the standard treatment for patients with advanced disease. Newer trials are currently addressing the role of more aggressive therapy in patients with a poor prognosis while parallel trials examine the possibility of minimizing toxicity for those patients with good-risk disease.