[Testicular tumors--a breakthrough?]

The prognosis of nonseminomatous germ cell testis tumors has been significantly improved during the past two decades due to progress in cytostatic treatment. General trends and our own long term experience with sequential combination chemotherapy (velbane/bleomycin; adriamycin/cisplatin; ifosfamide/etoposide) in testicular cancer are presented. In disseminated stages survival was closely related to the initial concentration of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) and tumor burden (two year survival: more than 80% in patients with minimal pulmonary disease, 40-50% in patients with massive pulmonary disease, and less than 30% in patients with pulmonary metastases and massive retroperitoneal disease). New diagnostic and therapeutic methods to increase survival rates further in nonseminomatous testicular cancer are discussed.