Surgery to remove the affected testicle is called a radical inguinal orchiectomy. Men should know that losing a testicle will not usually render them impotent or sterile. A man with a single testicle can still have normal erections and continue to produce sperm. Radiation therapy, or radiotherapy, uses high-energy rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. It is a local therapy that affects cancer cells only in the treated areas.
Seminomas are highly sensitive to radiation, while the non-seminomas are far less sensitive.
Men with non-seminomas usually do not undergo radiation. Radiation, unfortunately, affects normal cells as well as cancer cells. The side effects from treatment depend largely on the treatment dose, and they include nausea, fatigue, skin changes at the site of the radiation, loss of appetite and diarrhea. Radiation interferes with sperm production, but resumes within a matter of months. It's almost a model for treatment, because of how successful it is.