Testicular Cancer
Testicular
cancer symptoms
The
most common symptom of a testicular cancer is a lump or
swelling in part of one testicle.
Remember
- most testicular lumps are NOT cancer. At a testicular
clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, only
76 cancers were found out of 2,000 men seen with a testicular
lump. This means fewer than 4 in every 100 testicular lumps
(4%) are cancer (figures courtesy of Mr Mike Wallace, FRCS).
A
lump that is cancer can be as small as a pea, or may be
much larger. It is not usually painful, but some men have
a dull ache in
* The affected testicle
* Their lower abdomen
Your
scrotum may feel heavy. Your GP may shine a strong light
through your testicle. If you have a fluid filled cyst (called
a hydrocoele) rather than a cancer, the light will show
through. A cancer is a solid lump and the light can't pass
through it. Your doctor may call this test 'transillumination'.
Sometimes
testicular cancer cells can spread into lymph glands at
the back of the abdomen. This can cause backache. Your doctor
may call these lymph glands the para-aortic or retro-peritoneal
lymph glands. Sometimes testicular cancer spreads into lymph
glands lower down - the pelvic lymph glands.
glands
The
cells can also spread to the lymph nodes in the mediastinum.
This is an area in the centre of your chest, between the
lungs. If you have testicular cancer in the lymph nodes
in your mediastinum, you could have
* Cough
* Difficulty in breathing
* Difficulty in swallowing
* A swelling in your chest
If
testicular cancer has spread, there may be lumps in other
parts of the body. Around the collarbone, or in the neck
for example. These lumps are affected lymph glands.
Testicular
cancer can also spread to other organs in the body. If it
has spread to the lungs you may have a cough or feel breathless.
It is not very common for testicular cancer to spread to
other organs, apart from the lungs. Overall, about 1 in
6 testicular cancers wil be diagnosed as stage 4. Testicular
cancer can usually be cured, even if it has spread when
it is diagnosed.
Many
testicular cancers make hormones that can be detected in
blood tests. Doctors call these markers. There is more about
this in the CancerHelp UK section Diagnosing Testicular
Cancer. Occasionally, men with testicular cancer have tender
or swollen breasts because of these hormones.
Types
of testicular cancer
There
are two main types of testicular cancer
* Seminomas
* Non-seminomas
About
1 in 3 testicular cancers are pure seminomas. Most of the
rest are mixtures of these other types of non-seminoma testicular
cancers
* Teratoma
* Embryonal carcinoma
* Choriocarcinoma
* Yolk sac tumours
A
non-seminoma testicular cancer may have some teratoma cells
and some embryonal carcinoma cells, for example. It is also
possible to have pure teratomas. All these types of testicular
cancer are treated more or less the same, so the exact cell
types will not make much difference to you.
Some
testicular tumours have both seminoma cells and non-seminoma
cells.
Very
rarely, other types of cancer can start in the testicles.
The commonest cancer found in the testicles in men over
50 is lymphoma. If you have been diagnosed with a lymphoma
in the testicle, then you can find information about treatment
in the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma section of CancerHelp UK.
Germ
cell cancers
Testicular cancers and ovarian cancers are germ cell cancers.
This means that they start from cells that are used to make
sperm or eggs. Sometimes, these cells can can crop up in
other parts of the body. This is because testicular type
cells (ovary type cells in women) can be left behind in
other parts of the body from when your body developed in
the womb.
These
left over cells are normally quite harmless. But rarely
they can become cancerous. Germ cell cancers are sometimes
diagnosed in a part of the chest called the mediastinum.
It is the area between the lungs that contains the heart.
These cancers may also start at the back of the abdomen
(retroperitoneal cancers) or in the brain.
Germ
cell cancers in other parts of the body are treated in a
similar way to testicular germ cell tumours. They generally
respond very well to chemotherapy and most people are cured.
Angstrom Minerals Product And Price List
The information on this page has been extracted from http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/default.asp?page=2676
