Contemporary trends in management of stage 1 seminoma

Surveillance is now the preferred treatment strategy for patients with stage 1A/1B seminoma as reflected by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines. In this study, we aimed to describe trends in adjuvant management strategy for stage 1A/B seminoma from 2004 to 2016 using the National Cancer Database.

The database was queried for patients diagnosed with stage 1A/1B seminoma between 2004 and 2016. Staging was determined using the American Joint Committee on Cancer guidelines. Surveillance was defined as no treatment with chemotherapy or radiation within 60 days of diagnosis. Proportions of cancer patients utilizing surveillance, radiation, and single-agent chemotherapy were summarized annually. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to compare overall survival between groups.

8,686 patients with stage 1A/1B seminoma met inclusion criteria over the course of the study period. Overall, 3,004 (34.6%) patients began adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation within 60 days. Utilization of surveillance increased from 39.8% in 2004 to 86.8% in 2016 while utilization of radiation decreased from 59.7% to 4.6%. High-volume centers adopted surveillance earlier than low-volume centers.

This study describes trends in utilization of surveillance, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy for stage 1A/1B seminoma over 12 years. A major shift from utilization of adjuvant treatment to surveillance in patients with stage 1A/B seminoma is observed in this large national cancer database; a minority of patients now receive adjuvant treatment and risk-related toxicities. Survival analysis reveals similar survival at a median 5-year follow-up. The results provide insight into the time needed for clinical practice to adopt the preferred approach of surveillance over the time period studied.