Jab can cure common testicular cancer, say researchers

A SINGLE jab of a chemotherapy drug can cure a common type of testicular cancer, researchers said yesterday.

Carboplatin, which is often used to treat ovarian and lung cancer, can replace radiotherapy to cure early-stage seminoma, a study found.

The drug is being hailed as a “safer cure” for the cancer by experts, with fewer long-term risks.

About 40% to 45% of testicular cancers are early-stage seminoma and between 780 and 880 men are diagnosed with this stage of the disease each year in Britain.

In the early stages, the cancer is either confined to the testicle or causes slight enlargement of the lymph nodes in the pelvis or abdomen.

It is nearly always curable and more than 95% of men diagnosed with early-stage seminoma live for more than five years after diagnosis.

In the largest ever trial of the disease, a single carboplatin injection was used to treat 573 patients with early-stage seminoma.

The results were compared with 904 men given two or three weeks of daily radiotherapy, the current standard treatment.

Those patients given carboplatin experienced fewer side effects and were able to get back to their normal lives quicker than the men on radiotherapy, the research found.

Of 573 patients given carboplatin, a total of 5% relapsed within three years. But none of the men died from their cancer following further treatment.

Men with seminomas usually have the testicle removed where the cancer occurred.

In one in 20 cases, the other testicle also develops cancer. Those patients treated with carboplatin were far less likely to develop cancer in the other testicle.

Only two out of 573 developed cancer in the other testicle compared with 15 out of 904 patients treated with radiotherapy.

Dr Ben Mead, honorary senior lecturer in medical oncology at the University of Southampton’s School of Medicine, said: “We were pleased by the results of this huge trial.

“Giving patients a carboplatin injection rather than radiotherapy is less unpleasant with fewer long-term risks.

“The initial results of the trial looked encouraging, but we needed to follow patients for another four years before we knew for sure that they had been cured. These follow-up results are very reassuring and have already changed practice in Europe.

“We hope that carboplatin injections will become the standard treatment for this disease across the rest of the world within a few years.

“A particular advantage with this treatment is that follow-up beyond three years is not necessary.”

Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research Britain’s chief clinician said: “This trial now shows that chemotherapy can cure early stage seminoma, so that men diagnosed with the disease can be successfully treated with fewer side effects.”