A trial looking at chemotherapy for male germ cell cancer (TE 23)

This trial compared 2 different chemotherapy treatments for male germ cell cancers. This trial was supported by Cancer Research UK.

Germ cells are the cells that produce eggs in females and sperm in males. Male germ cell cancers usually develop in the testicles, but can be found in other parts of the body.

Doctors usually treat germ cell cancers with surgery if it is in the testicle, and also with chemotherapy if it is somewhere else in the body. They usually give a combination of chemotherapy called BEP.

BEP doesn’t always work well for germ cell cancers that are classed as having a ‘poor outlook’ (prognosis). A poor outlook means that your cancer has spread to particular parts of your body or that your cancer started in your chest (mediastinum). Doctors thought a new combination of drugs known as CBOP BEP may have worked better for these cancers. CBOP BEP is carboplatin and vincristine with the drugs used in BEP. But all chemotherapy drugs have some side effects, and it is important that patients don’t have treatments they don’t need.

The aims of this trial were to compare BEP with CBOP BEP to see which may cause the cancer to shrink more for poor prognosis male germ cell cancer and to find out more about the side effects.