Read article If your testicular cancer comes back
This page is about the possibility of your testicular cancer coming back after treatment. There is information on
If your testicular cancer comes back
Sometimes testicular cancer comes back after you have finished your treatment. This is called a relapse. If cancer is going to come back, this is most likely to happen within 2 years.
The cancer can still be cured. Most men who have relapsed testicular cancer have chemotherapy. You may have surgery if the cancer comes back in the lymph nodes in your abdomen (tummy).
If you had chemotherapy before, you may have high dose chemotherapy. This destroys your bone marrow. So you will have bone marrow or stem cells taken out and frozen before you start the treatment. You have these cells back after your chemotherapy. This is called a bone marrow or stem cell rescue, or transplant.
If you have seminoma that comes back, you may have radiotherapy. You may have radiotherapy after surgery for teratoma that comes back.
You can view and print the quick guides for all the pages in the treating testicular cancer section.
Sometimes testicular cancer comes back after you have finished your treatment. This is called a relapse. If the cancer is going to come back, it is most likely to do so within 2 years of finishing your treatment. Less than 1 in 20 relapses happen later than that.
Even testicular cancer that comes back can be cured. The treatment you will be given depends on
- The type of testicular cancer you have
- The treatment you have already had
- Where in your body the cancer comes back
Most men who have relapsed testicular cancer are treated with chemotherapy. The drugs you have will vary depending on whether you have had chemotherapy before. There is more information in the chemotherapy for testicular cancer section. Surgery can also be used. It is an important treatment if the cancer comes back in the lymph nodes in your abdomen. The operation to remove abdominal lymph nodes is called a retroperitoneal lymph node dissection.
If you had chemotherapy before, you may be offered treatment with different drugs, or treatment with high dose chemotherapy. The high doses of chemotherapy will destroy your bone marrow. So you will have some bone marrow or stem cells taken out and frozen before you start the treatment.
The harvested marrow or stem cells are thawed out and given back to you after the chemotherapy has taken effect. This is called a bone marrow or stem cell rescue. You may also hear it called bone marrow or stem cell transplant (although it is not really a transplant because you are having your own cells back, not someone else's.)
There is more about high dose chemotherapy in the about cancer treatment section of CancerHelp UK.
Radiotherapy can be used to treat seminoma that has come back after it was first treated. It can also be used as a 'belt and braces' approach after surgery for teratoma that has come back. This means that it is given to remaining lymph nodes, for example, in case any cancer cells have been left behind.
If you have had a lot of chemotherapy before and your disease is thought to be resistant to chemotherapy treatment, you may have surgery to remove the tumours that have grown back. This is most often done to treat lymph nodes or tumours in the lungs.
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