Testicular Cancer

For men with testicular cancer, the outlook has improved steadily over the years. Because of better ways to diagnose and treat the disease, the chance for recovery has grown dramatically. Today a large majority of patients with testicular cancer are cured by their initial treatment, and many of those who have a recurrence can be cured too.

Testicular cancer is one of the most common cancers in young men between the ages of 15 and 34, but also occurs in other age groups. Yet the disease is rare, accounting for only about 1 percent of all cancers in American men. If found early, testicular cancer is almost always curable.

The most common types of testicular cancer are seminoma and nonseminoma.

Seminomas – Make up about 40 percent of all testicular cancer cases
Nonseminomas - comprise the other 60 percent of cancer cases, and are actually a group of cancers that includes choriocarcinoma, embryonal carcinoma, teratoma and yolk sac tumors.

Each of these two major testicular cancer types grows and spreads differently and is treated differently.