[Chemotherapy of testicular cancer, with special reference to cisplatin therapy]

Our statistical study revealed that testicular neoplasms seemed to increase in incidence during a 28-year-period from 1950 to 1977 in Japan. Annual deaths from testicular neoplasm were approximately 50 in the first 4 years of the period and increased to approximately 200 in the last 3 years. Age-adjusted mortality rate increased from 1.2 per million to 3.3 per million during the period. Untoward effects of CDDP were surveyed among 47 patients with urogenital malignancy who received anticancerous chemotherapies of CDDP alone or in combination with other drugs at the Kyoto University Hospital or its affiliates in the recent 3 years. About 95% of the patients suffered from such gastro-intestinal ailments as loss of appetite and vomiting. Bone marrow suppression was confirmed by laboratory studies among a third of the patients. Nephrotoxicity indicated by 25 to 50% reduction in creatinine clearance was induced in 6 patients-transitory in 4 and permanent in the remaining. Fifty percent survival rate was 18 months and 5 survived more than 2 years with NED among 21 patients with stage II or stage III testicular cancer treated at the Hospital or its affiliates since 1975, while the rate was 6 months among 10 patients during the period from 1965 to 1974. These improvements was thought to be brought in by adopation of VAB or PVB chemotherapy.