Because testicular cancer rarely occurs in both testes, a patient's remaining testicle can maintain hormone levels and fertility. Sometimes surgery is all that is needed. Further treatment decisions are based on the particular type and stage of the cancer. In more advanced cases, chemotherapy or radiation treatments may be necessary.
Radiation therapy is particularly effective for seminomas.
Radiation therapy does have side effects, including fatigue, nausea and vomiting, and skin irritations. The side effects of chemotherapy depend on which drugs are used, and can include hair loss, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, all of which generally end when chemotherapy is stopped. This division is based upon such factors as whether the cancer has invaded nearby lymph nodes or vascular tissue, or the extent of tumor spread within the testis and serum tumor marker levels after orchiectomy. The last option is that of short-course chemotherapy. Recent data has shown that in patients with clinical Stage 1 disease, who also have adverse features that increase the chance of microscopic disease in the lymph nodes, a course of three cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy greatly reduces the relapse rate.