LONDON -- Most testicular cancer patients who try to father children after
completing their treatment succeed, scientists said on Tuesday.
Men who have surgery to remove the tumour have the least problems but even
patients who have radiotherapy and chemotherapy are able to have children.
"The vast majority of men, after testicular cancer treatment, can go on
and have a family as normal," said Dr Robert Huddart of The Institute
of Cancer Research in London.
But he added that there is a portion of patients, regardless of what
treatment they have had, who will have difficulty having children because
the illness and low fertility are associated.
Cases of the cancer, which affects mostly men in their late 20s and early
30s, have risen rapidly in recent decades. In some countries it is the most
common cancer among young men. About 50,000 new cases are reported worldwide
each year.
Huddart and his colleagues studied 700 patients who had been treated for the
disease between 1982-1992 and asked them to complete a questionnaire about
their health and fertility. Their findings are published in the British
Journal of Cancer.
Of the 200 patients who admitted they were trying to have a child, 77
percent were successful. An additional 10 percent fathered children through
fertility treatment.
Men who had surgery and no follow-up treatment had an 85 percent success
rate, followed by 82 percent for patients following radiotherapy and 71
percent after chemotherapy.
For patients who had both chemotherapy and radiotherapy the fertility rate
dropped to 67 percent.
Despite the promising results, Huddart said men who want children should
bank their sperm before having treatment.
"We would always advise men to bank their sperm before chemotherapy
even though we would expect most of them to recover their fertility,"
Huddart said.
"Overall, it was under 5 percent of the men who wanted to have a family
who needed that sort of support."
TESTOSTERONE
MONITORED
If the disease is diagnosed and treated early, survival rates are very good.
Six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong suffered from the illness.
Denmark, Switzerland and Norway have among the highest rates of testicular
cancer in the world. The disease is common is some families so researchers
know there is a genetic component to the illness which accounts for about 20
percent of cases.
Doctors also suspect that environmental factors and exposure to higher
levels of the female hormone oestrogen in the womb are contributing factors
to the increase in the disease.
The researchers suggested men's testosterone levels should be monitored
because men with low levels tend to be less sexually active.
"We need to be alert for the men who have low testosterone because
those men may be having a lower quality of life," Huddart explained.
Early symptoms of the illness include a lump or sore on the testicles, pain
or soreness, a persistent cough, blood in the urine and stomach or bowel
problems.