Testicular cancer responds well to treatment

The majority of young men with testicular cancer can expect to be cured.

But for a minority with a particularly aggressive form of the disease, the chances of survival are only 50:50.

These results are the best yet to be achieved internationally for patients suffering from aggressive testicular cancer Dr Robert Huddart

However, scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden Hospital have boosted the survival rate to 88% by the intensive use of drug treatments.

In total, 54 patients were given the new form of accelerated chemotherapy treatment for four weeks, followed by more standard drug therapy.

Five years later

Five years after the treatment 83% had showed no sign of the disease returning, remained recurrence-free and 88% were alive.

Researcher Dr Robert Huddart said: "This type of tumour cell is known to divide and proliferate rapidly during the early stages of treatment and our intensive dosing early on may help to overcome this.

"These results are the best yet to be achieved internationally for patients suffering from aggressive testicular cancer."

The next stage will be test the new-style treatment against standard therapy.

Professor Peter Rigby, Chief executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, said: "Some 96% of testicular cancers are curable when caught early enough and the results of this trial suggest that a great step forward has now been made in treating a particularly aggressive form of the disease.

"A further advantage of this treatment is that it uses existing drugs in a different way, so it is easily available."

Common form of the disease

Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer in young men, mostly affecting those between the ages of 20 and 35.

There are now 1,600 cases a year, an increase of 70% in the last 20 years.

Professor Robert Souhami, director of clinical research at Cancer Research UK, said: "Testicular cancer responds amazingly well to chemotherapy and more than nine out of ten cases are successfully treated.

"But there is a small percentage of aggressive testicular cancers that do not respond well to conventional chemotherapy.

"It is vital that we focus on ways to improve treatment for patients with these tumours and the results from this trial look very promising."