Radiotherapy in testicular germ cell tumours - a literature review

Testicular germ cell tumours (GCT) represent about 1-2% of malignant in men. The essential therapeutic option for early-stage GCT is radical orchiectomy (RO), except in situations that require immediate chemotherapy in patients with a massive dissemination and unequivocally elevated levels of tumour markers. Postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) in patients with testicular seminoma in Clinical Stage I (CS I) is one of the treatment options next to active surveillance (AS) and chemotherapy (CHTH). Regardless of the procedure, five-year survival in this group of patients ranges between 97% and 100%. In the article, we present the literature review pertinent to therapeutic options, with a focus on radiotherapy. We have searched MEDLINE (PubMed) for all studies on patients with GCT treated with radiation therapy during the last 20 years, and the current therapeutic recommendations. We used the following keywords: germ cell tumours, testis, seminoma, non-seminoma, radiotherapy, outcome.