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Choosing the Treatment That's Right for You
Treatment for testicular cancer depends on the stage of the disease. Surgery to remove the testicle is sometimes combined with radiation and/or chemotherapy.
Treatment Options
Radical inguinal orchiectomy is the surgical removal of the testicle and the spermatic cord through an incision in the groin. Surgery is performed under general or regional anesthesia and takes approximately 1 hour. Most patients remain in the hospital overnight.
Radiation uses high energy x-rays to destroy cancer cells. In testicular seminoma, external beam radiation (from a machine outside of the body) is primarily used after orchiectomy (called adjuvant therapy) to destroy cancer cells that have spread (metastasized) to lymph nodes.
Chemotherapy is a systemic (i.e., circulates throughout the body via the bloodstream) cancer treatment that uses toxic drugs to destroy cancer cells. In testicular cancer cases, it is used to destroy cancer cells that remain after surgery. Chemotherapy may be administered intravenously (IV), taken in pill form, or injected into muscle.
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