My Husband

[ssavino]

Hi- My 32 year old husband was diag on Friday, had his scans Friday which showed no spread evident and was operated on yesterday to remove his left testicle. Currently in bed with pain. MD said markers were almost nonexistent. I asked if maybe it was not cancer but he said it was but likely to be a pure seminoma. Anyone with this and what was treatment. Also of course waiting for pathology results to confirm.
I have 3 small children and while I fully understand this is cureable I feel very nervous.

S

[dadmo]

S:
Welcome. The doctor's won't know what course of action to follow until they have all the test results in but with no evidence of spread it's quite likely that your husband is already cured. If he should need further treatment it would be radiation. read the information at theses two sight to get a better understanding of what may be ahead. NCCN and TCRC . You may want to start with the TCRC link, it easier to follow when you're new at this.
One last thing, ask lots of question and remember that with proper treatment your husband should be ok.

[djmac]

Hi,

I was diagnosed with Stage I, and I am currently on surveillance. If I already had children and didn't want any more, then I would probably have gone with radiation for peace of mind. Other factors in my surveillance decision were the small size of the tumor, lack of visible lymph or vascular invasion, age (38, i.e.>35). Also, my uro, who is head of the urology clinic at the cancer institute, felt pretty strongly that I should do surveillance, that if it were him, this is what he would do.

Obviously, you have to see his path report... but chances are its seminoma with no markers. As for treatment, depending at what the path report says, he may not be spared the radiation... however, this should not be a major concern, since the levels are relatively low compared to other cancers and associated short and long term morbidity fairly manageable.

Best of luck!

djm

[Englishgal]

Treatment

My other half had a seminoma which was completly contained to the testicle, his CT scan and tumour markers were all clear.

He has had a single dose of Carboplatin, this seems to be the favoured treatment in the UK, appartently it has the same survival rates as radiation and has much less side effects. We don't have any kids yet but the docs seem to think that this low dose shouldn't have too much effect on his fertility.

[ssavino]

To all

Thank you for your replies. This site has been very informative and comforting.
S