Life expectancy 20 years after cisplatin-based treatment for testicular cancer (TC).

4550Background: Four decades have passed since the introduction of cisplatin-based chemotherapy for metastatic TC, providing the opportunity to evaluate very long-term survival. Although 80-90% of the patients are cured, the effect of treatment on residual life span is unknown. Aim of the study was to investigate life expectancy after TC treatment: from prolonging survival after cancer diagnosis, focus shifts to regaining a normal residual life span. Methods: Patients with metastatic TC treated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy > 20 years ago (1977 - 1996) at the University Medical Center Groningen were included. Survival status and cause of death were obtained from medical records, Netherlands Cancer Registry and general practitioners. Events were defined as death due to any cause (overall mortality) and death due to TC or TC treatment complications (TC specific mortality). Standardized mortality ratios (SMR) were calculated as ratio between observed and expected deaths, derived from the age-matched nati...