Value of computed tomography in the staging of testicular tumors

To analyze the value of computed tomography (CT) for the exact staging of testicular tumors, 2 groups of 28 patients each were examined. All patients underwent retroperitoneal lymph node dissection in the course of their treatment. Pretherapeutic stages as determined by CT were compared to the histologically verified definite tumor stages. In 68% of the patients, the stage found by CT was correct but 3 (5%) false-positive and 13 false-negative results were obtained. Thus, almost 40% (13/33) of the patients with clinical stage I disease presumably would have had a progression if managed by a surveillance strategy. It can be concluded that this strategy should be restricted to certain centers with guaranteed long-term standardized patient observation and extremely high patient compliance.