Review
© JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network | Volume 13 Number 6 | June 2015
811
Abstract
Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men aged 15 to 40
years in the United States, Canada, and many European countries.
Given the excellent prognosis of most men with testicular cancer,
updates in care after treatment have become very important. This
article provides a review of the available evidence, integrated with
expert medical judgment, in the area of testicular cancer follow-
up. (J Natl Compr Canc Netw 2015;13:811–822)
Given the excellent prognosis of most men with
testicular cancer, updates in care after treatment have
become very important. After the diagnosis and treat-
ment of testicular cancer, the goal of follow-up care is
to identify relapse early enough that effective salvage
therapy can be given. Over time, as the risk of relapse
diminishes, the focus of care changes to identifying and
treating the late effects that patients with testicular
cancer are known to experience. This article focuses on
the follow-up care given in the frst 5 years after the
diagnosis and treatment of testicular cancer.
Follow-Up for Testicular Cancer
Follow-up care for patients with testicular cancer begins
immediately after orchiectomy for those with clinical
stage I disease, defned as no evidence of cancer beyond
the testicle, who choose an active surveillance man-
agement strategy. Active surveillance implies careful
monitoring of patients, with treatment reserved exclu-
sively for those who experience disease relapse. Patients
with stage I disease must have no postorchiectomy
tumor marker elevation and no evidence of cancer in
any lymph node chain or soft tissue.
6
Beyond a good
history and physical examination, the standard base-
line workup for men with testicular cancer consists of
obtaining preorchiectomy tumor markers, specifcally
α-fetoprotein (AFP), β-human chorionic gonadotro-
pin (β-HCG), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and
postorchiectomy markers markers with the exception of
patients with clinical stage I seminoma in whom postor-
chiectomy markers may not be helpful in the detection
of recurrent cancer.
7
An abdominopelvic CT scan is
the universally accepted imaging technique for evaluat-
ing both lymph nodes and abdominal soft tissues. The
lymph nodes most at risk of involvement by testicular
From
a
Department of Radiation Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts;
b
Division of Medical Oncology, Mofftt Cancer Center, Tampa,
Florida;
c
Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering
Cancer Center, New York, New York;
d
Division of Medical Oncology,
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham and Women’s Hospital,
Boston, Massachusetts;
e
Department of Hematology/Oncology,
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
f
Division of
Oncology, Stanford University Medical Center, Palo Alto, California;
g
Division of Hematology/Oncology, The University of California,
San Francisco, California;
h
Urology Service, Department of Surgery,
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
Submitted January 28, 2015; accepted for publication
May 18, 2015.
Dr. Feldman has disclosed that he is a consultant and/or advisory
role for Gilead, research support from Bayer, and consultant
for Seattle Genetics. The remaining authors have disclosed that
they have no fnancial interests, arrangements, affliations, or
commercial interests with the manufacturers of any products
discussed in this article or their competitors.
Portions of this manuscript were published previously in the 2015
Genitourinary Cancers Symposium Daily News. Sweeney C, Beard
C. Approaches to Managing Clinical Stage I Testicular Cancer.
Available at: http://gucasym.org/approaches-managing-clinical-
stage-i-testicular-cancer. Accessed June 8, 2015.
Correspondence: Clair J. Beard, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 75 Francis Street, ASB-1, Level 2,
Boston, MA 02115. E-mail: cbeard@lroc.harvard.edu
Follow-Up Management of Patients With
Testicular Cancer: A Multidisciplinary
Consensus-Based Approach
Clair J. Beard, MD
a
; Shilpa Gupta, MD
b
; Robert J. Motzer, MD
c
; Elizabeth K. O’Donnell, MD
d
;
Elizabeth R. Plimack, MD, MS
e
; Kim A. Margolin, MD
f
; Charles J. Ryan, MD
g
; Joel Sheinfeld, MD
h
; and
Darren R. Feldman, MD
c
Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men
aged 15 to 40 years in the United States, Canada, and
many European countries.
1,2
The incidence of testicular
cancer is increasing in all of these areas, and in several
countries it has doubled in the past 20 years.
3
However,
available evidence suggests that death from testicular
cancer is now rare (<1%–5%) in appropriately managed
patients in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
4,5