Surveillance of Stage 1 Non-Seminomatous Testicular Cancer — A Preliminary Report of the EORTC GU-Cooperative Group Surveillance Study

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a preliminary report of the EORTC GU-Cooperative Group Surveillance Study. The EORTC Genito-Urinary Cooperative Group decided to start a wait-and-see policy study to see if the data from the other centers could be confirmed so as to evaluate the role of lymphangiography in staging and to look for histological prognostic factors as central pathology review was possible for all patient specimens. Patients were eligible for the study if they had histologically verified nonseminomatous germ cell tumors of the testis classified according to the English classification. After they had undergone unilateral orchidectomy via an inguinal incision, the patient's history and physical examination had to be negative for symptoms or signs of tumor activity. The tumor markers HCG, AFP, and LDH were to be normal at least three times after the orchidectomy, with an interval of more than 24 h between samples. Patients who had suffered a prior malignant tumor or previous treatment with cytostatic agents for nononcological reasons were ineligible. All patient data was collected at the EORTC Data Centre, Brussels, where the analyses were performed. Patients with small vessel invasion are judged high-risk and will in the future be treated in a new study protocol comparing retroperitoneal lymph node dissection with two cycles of BEP combination chemotherapy.