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| |  ASCO: Adjuvant Therapy With One-Day Course of Carboplatin is as Effective as Standard Radiation for Prevention of Recurrent Testicular Seminoma By M.M. Pennell NEW ORLEANS, LA -- June 9, 2004 -- Adjuvant therapy with a single dose of carboplatin was as effective as standard radiation therapy for prevention of recurrence of stage I seminoma of the testis after orchidectomy, according to results of a randomized study. R. Timothy Oliver, MD, professor of oncology, Barts and London Queen Mary's School of Medicine, London, United Kingdom, presented the findings here on June 7th at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 40th Annual Meeting. "We may soon have the option of testicle-conserving treatment in much the same way that we now have breast-conserving treatment for breast cancer," he said. From June 1996 to March 2001, Dr. Oliver and colleagues randomized 904 men to radiation treatment and 543 to a single dose of carboplatin chemotherapy. All men had stage I testicular seminoma. "After 3 years, there was no significant difference in relapse-free survival, " he said. The disease-free survival rate in the carboplatin group was just over 95%, while it was just less than 97% in the radiation arm. Ten men in the radiation arm and 2 men in the chemotherapy group had new cancers detected during follow-up, he said. Dr. Oliver said that the one-shot treatment is less toxic then radiation, and most men reported less fatigue and nausea following treatment with chemotherapy, which meant that they were able to return to work sooner than men treated with radiation. Robert J. Mayer, MD, director of gastrointestinal oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, said that even though testicular cancer has a high cure rate with radiation therapy, "it's important that we select treatments that are the least toxic to our patients." He noted, however, that long-term data are needed to confirm the efficacy of the one-shot therapy. If the positive results of this study stand the test of time -- if results at 10 or 20 years are as positive as these early results -- it may be possible to treat early stage testicular cancer by removing just the cancerous tissue, rather than the entire testicle, Dr. Oliver said. "Men may have the option of testicular-conserving therapy just as women undergo lumpectomy to save their breasts," he added.
[Presentation title: A Randomised Comparison of Single Agent Carboplatin With Radiotherapy in the Adjuvant Treatment of Stage I Seminoma of the Testis, Following Orchidectomy: MRC TE19/EORTC 30982. Abstract 4517]
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