Testicular tumor in blacks

Although testicular tumors are less common in blacks than in whites, they do occur and must be considered in making a differential diagnosis of scrotal masses. At The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute at Houston, 19 black men were treated for testicular tumor between 1944 and 1980, representing 1.4 per cent of the total of 1,380 patients treated for testicular tumor. Since blacks made up 7.9 per cent of all patients treated at UT M. D. Anderson Hospital, blacks with testicular tumor were seen about one-fifth as often as would be expected if there were no racial variation in the incidence of the disease. Twelve patients had a diagnosis of seminoma, five embryonal carcinoma, one teratocarcinoma, and one interstitial cell tumor. The majority of patients had metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis. Five of 12 patients with seminoma and 5 of 6 with nonseminomatous cancer died of disease. Prognosis today, however, is no worse for blacks than for whites.