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Affects mainly young men — and is usually very curable even when advanced.
Also known as: testicular cancer · seminoma · non-seminoma
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
The most common cancer in men aged roughly 20 to 40 — and one with very good prospects of cure, even at advanced stages. The usual sign is a painless hardening or enlargement of one testicle, sometimes a feeling of heaviness. Because it affects young men and is highly treatable, occasional self-examination is worthwhile: knowing your normal makes a change easy to notice. A testicle that feels different than before should be seen by a urologist.
The treatment plan is not made by one person alone but in a round of surgery, oncology, radiology, pathology and radiotherapy. You may ask what was discussed there and which alternatives came up.
Before a big decision it is planned for in many clinics, and the records belong to you. It costs one to two weeks — acceptable in almost every course, and one asks about that if it is urgent.
It is today part of the treatment and not its opposite: it lessens the exhaustion, keeps muscle and bone and improves how the treatment is tolerated. Begin with guidance, less on bad days, but not nothing at all.
Unintended weight loss worsens how any treatment is tolerated. Restrictive diets do more harm than good here — with loss of appetite, dietary advice helps early, not only once kilos are already gone.
By the clock rather than as needed works better and needs less overall. Fear of dependence is the wrong adviser in this situation — untreated pain costs sleep, appetite and strength.
Psycho-oncological support, social advice for insurance and work, and the question of who takes on what at home. This is no emergency measure but belongs at the start — and the relatives belong in it.
This question belongs before the first day of treatment, not after — it cannot be caught up later. The same goes for eggs in young women with other cancers; asking about it is usual and no imposition.
Testicular cancer is curable in most cases even with spread — which sets it apart from almost all others. Platinum-based chemotherapy works exceptionally well here and runs in three to four cycles over nine to twelve weeks. So it is given at full dose and without delay; here a postponement costs more than elsewhere. Sperm is frozen before the start, because the treatment can affect fertility for months or permanently.
It is the most common cancer in men between fifteen and thirty-five — and at the same time one of the most treatable: more than ninety in a hundred are cured, and about eighty even with spread. An undescended testis in childhood raises the risk, even after correction. Self-examination takes a minute and is best done after a shower. After treatment, follow-up runs over five to ten years.
A hard, immovable lump in the testicle itself — not in the epididymis behind it. It usually does not hurt, and that is exactly why it is often reported late.
A one-sided heaviness, a dull pull in groin or lower belly, a sudden increase in the size of the testicle or a new collection of fluid.
When the skin is warm and loose, once a month: roll each testicle between thumb and fingers, compare the two. It is about change, not perfection — and it concerns mainly men between twenty and forty.
A newly tender or swollen breast gland in a man can come from hormones made by a testicular tumour. That is rare, but it is a sign no one otherwise connects with the testicle.
Most of the time it does not hurt — a painless firm lump is what stands out. Dragging or heaviness occurs; pain is the exception.
One of the three values used for staging and follow-up. It does not make the diagnosis — that comes from ultrasound and tissue. And a normal value rules nothing out: some tumours make no markers at all.
The same substance that turns a pregnancy test positive — which is why such a test can react in a man. Here too: for staging and follow-up, not for diagnosis.
A rough measure of how much tumour tissue there is. Non-specific, but it feeds into the staging.
The loss of muscle mass helps decide how well a treatment is tolerated. Enough protein spread across the day, together with movement, is the part one holds oneself.
Low values are common with a longer illness, and correcting them counts for bone and muscle. For high-dose courses against the illness itself there are no studies; they can interfere with treatment.
Belong in the workup of an anaemia that is otherwise too quickly put down to the illness or the treatment. Both are easy to measure and easy to supplement.
Nausea, diarrhoea and fever dry one out quickly, and several treatments strain the kidney. Drinking enough is no side issue here.
After removal of one testicle testosterone falls permanently in a proportion of men — and with it bone density, often measurable only after years. Vitamin D, calcium and strength training go the other way; the testosterone value belongs measured alongside.
Cisplatin flushes magnesium out through the kidney, and the loss often persists for months to years after treatment. Calf cramps and heart stumbling in that time here often have a measurable cause.
The tingling in fingers and toes after platinum-based chemotherapy persists in a proportion. B6 is often recommended but from about 50 mg daily over months damages nerves itself — the normal dosing inside a complex is the safe route.
Clearly worthwhile and well supported when deficient — vegan, older adults, certain drugs. No energy boost without a deficiency.
After removal the other testicle usually takes over. Before treatment the question of later fatherhood matters more than any value.
After chemotherapy metabolic and vascular problems occur more often decades later. Blood pressure, blood fats and weight are therefore followed — diet works here across decades.
The claim usually rests on the PET scan: weakly radioactive glucose is injected, and the tumour lights up. That shows tumour cells take up sugar faster than the tissue next to them — not that eaten sugar feeds them. You come to a PET scan fasting, and the tumour lights up anyway; the body keeps blood sugar within narrow limits by itself. It cannot be starved out this way. There is an established link nonetheless, but it runs through body fat: in 2016 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reviewed the available studies and found sufficient evidence, for thirteen cancers, that absence of excess weight lowers the risk. That concerns prevention — it is not an answer to where an existing illness came from.
After chemotherapy metabolic and vascular problems occur more often decades later. Movement in follow-up is therefore more than fitness — it is long-range prevention.