Early clinical stages (CS1, CS1Mk+ and CS2A) of non-seminomatous testis cancer. Value of pre- and post-orchiectomy serum tumor marker information in prediction of retroperitoneal lymph node metastases. Swedish-Norwegian Testicular Cancer Project (SWENOTECA).
During a 5-year period (1981-86) 588 consecutive patients with nonseminatous germ cell tumors of the testis were included into a prospective Swedish-Norwegian multicenter study (SWENOTECA) and clinically staged according to the Royal Marsden system. A total of 370 patients (63%) had early clinical stages (CS) of disease; 295 (50%) had CS1, 32 (5%) had CS1Mk+ (CS1 with pathological serum tumor marker patterns after orchiectomy) and 43 (7%) had CS2A disease. Pathological staging with retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND) of the retroperitoneum was performed in 345 (93%) of the early CS patients and 128 (37%) had pathological stage 2 (PS2) disease; 27% of the CS1, 100% of the CS1Mk+ and 66% of the CS2A patients. The overall clinical staging accuracy was 75%. All the 40 patients with pathological serum AFP and/or HCG patterns before RPLND had PS2 disease, compared to 81/282 (29%) of patients with normal marker patterns. The PS2 patients with pathological marker patterns had significantly more and larger retroperitoneal metastases than those with normal AFP and HCG values. Elevated pre-orchiectomy AFP level indicated significantly reduced risk of PS2 disease in CS1 patients, but this effect became non-significant if the CS1Mk+ and CS2A cases were included into univariate or multivariate analyses. We suggest that the 'good risk' effect of pre-orchiectomy AFP elevation for CS1 cases may be caused by a selection mechanism during the clinical staging process.
Klepp
O
O
Department of Oncology, University Hospitals of Trondheim, Bergen, Norway.
Flodgren
P
P
Maartman-Moe
H
H
Lindholm
C E
CE
Unsgaard
B
B
Teigum
H
H
Fosså
S D
SD
Paus
E
E
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood; D006063:Chorionic Gonadotropin / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009373:Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D009919:Orchiectomy; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012187:Retroperitoneal Space; D013736:Testicular Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000032:analysis*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D006063:Chorionic Gonadotropin; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins